Old/New Testament
Zedekiah Consults Jeremiah
37 Josiah’s son King Zedekiah reigned in place of Jehoiakim’s son Coniah,[a] whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had made king of the land of Judah. 2 But neither he nor his officials nor the people of the land listened to the words of the Lord that were spoken by[b] Jeremiah the prophet.
3 King Zedekiah sent Shelemiah’s son Jehucal and Maaseiah’s son Zephaniah the priest to Jeremiah the prophet, asking him, “Please pray to the Lord our God for us.” 4 Now Jeremiah was still[c] going in and out among the people since he had not yet been put in prison. 5 Pharaoh’s army had come out of Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them, they withdrew from Jerusalem.
6 Then this message from the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet: 7 “This is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘This is what you are to say to the king of Judah who sent you to me to inquire of me, “Look, Pharaoh’s army that has come to help will go back to its own land of Egypt, 8 and then the Chaldeans will come back to fight against this city, to capture it, and burn it with fire.”’ 9 “This is what the Lord says: ‘Don’t deceive yourselves by saying, “The Chaldeans will surely go away from us,” ‘for they won’t go. 10 Indeed, even if you defeated the entire Chaldean army that is fighting against you, and they had only wounded men left in their tents, they would get up and burn this city with fire.’”’”
Jeremiah Arrested for Treason
11 When the Chaldean army was leaving Jerusalem because of Pharaoh’s army, 12 Jeremiah left Jerusalem to go to the territory of Benjamin to take possession of his property[d] there among the people. 13 He was in the Gate of Benjamin, and chief officer Irijah, Shelemiah’s son and the grandson of Hananiah, was there. He arrested Jeremiah the prophet, accusing him: “You are going over to the Chaldeans!”
14 Jeremiah said, “It’s a lie! I’m not going over to the Chaldeans.” But Irijah[e] would not listen to him, and he[f] arrested Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. 15 The officials were angry with Jeremiah and beat him. They put him in jail in the house of Jonathan the scribe because they had made it into a prison. 16 So Jeremiah came into the cells in the dungeon[g] and remained there for a long time.[h]
17 Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah[i] and received him. The king questioned him secretly in his house: “Is there a message from the Lord?”
Jeremiah said, “There is,” and then he said, “You will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon.” 18 Then Jeremiah asked King Zedekiah, “What offense have I committed against you, your officials, or these people that you have put me in prison? 19 Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, telling you: ‘The king of Babylon won’t come against you or against this land’? 20 Now, please listen, your majesty,[j] and pay attention to what I’m asking you. Don’t make me go back to the house of Jonathan the scribe, so I don’t die there.”
21 So King Zedekiah gave the order, and they assigned Jeremiah to the courtyard of the guard. Each day they gave him a loaf of bread from the bakers’ street until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.
Jeremiah is Arrested and Imprisoned
38 Mattan’s son Shephatiah, Pashhur’s son Gedaliah, Shelemiah’s son Jucal, and Malchijah’s son Pashhur heard the words that Jeremiah was speaking to all the people: 2 “This is what the Lord says: ‘Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, by famine, and by the plague, but the one who goes over to the Chaldeans will live. His life will be spared,[k] and he will live.’ 3 This is what the Lord says: ‘This city will surely be given to the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.’”
4 Then the officials told the king, “Let this man be put to death because he’s undermining the efforts[l] of the soldiers who remain in this city and that of all the people by speaking words like these to them. Indeed, this man is not seeking the well-being of this people, but rather their harm.”
5 King Zedekiah said, “Look, he’s in your hands, and the king can do nothing to you.” 6 So they threw Jeremiah into a cistern that belonged to the king’s son Malchijah and was located in the courtyard of the guard. When they let Jeremiah down with ropes, because there was no water in the cistern—only mud—Jeremiah sank into the mud.
Jeremiah Rescued from the Cistern
7 Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, a eunuch[m] in the king’s house, heard that Jeremiah had been put in the cistern. The king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate, 8 so Ebed-melech went out of the palace and spoke to the king: 9 “Your majesty,[n] these men have acted wickedly in all they have done to the prophet Jeremiah by throwing him into the cistern. He will die where he is because of the famine since there is no more bread in the city.”
10 Then the king ordered Ebed-melech the Ethiopian:[o] “Thirty men are at your disposal. Take them with you and bring up Jeremiah the prophet from the cistern before he dies.” 11 So Ebed-melech took the men with him and went to the palace, underneath the storeroom. He took worn out rags and worn out clothes from there, and using ropes he lowered them down to Jeremiah in the cistern.
12 Ebed-melech the Ethiopian told Jeremiah, “Put the worn out rags and clothes under your armpits under the ropes,” and Jeremiah did as he said.[p] 13 They pulled Jeremiah with the ropes and brought him up from the cistern, but Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.
Zedekiah Again Seeks Advice from Jeremiah
14 King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and had him brought to him[q] at the third entrance to the Lord’s Temple. The king told Jeremiah, “I’m going to ask you something, and don’t hide anything from me.”
15 Jeremiah told Zedekiah, “When I tell you, you will surely put me to death, won’t you? And when I give you advice, you don’t listen to me.”
16 Then King Zedekiah, in secret, swore an oath to Jeremiah: “As surely as the Lord lives, who gave us this life to live, I won’t have you put to death, nor will I hand you over to these men who are seeking to kill you.”
17 So Jeremiah told Zedekiah, “This is what the Lord God of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you will immediately surrender[r] to the officers[s] of the king of Babylon, then you will live, and this city won’t be burned with fire. Both you and your family will live. 18 But if you don’t surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city will be given to the Chaldeans, and they’ll burn it with fire. You won’t escape from their hands.’”
19 Then King Zedekiah told Jeremiah, “I’m afraid of the Judeans who have gone over to the Chaldeans. The Chaldeans[t] may turn me over to them,[u] and they may treat me harshly.”
20 Jeremiah said, “They won’t turn you over. Obey the Lord in what I’m telling you, and it will go well for you and you will live. 21 But if you refuse to surrender,[v] this is what the Lord has shown me: 22 Look, all the women who are left in the house of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officers of the king of Babylon, and will say,
‘These friends of yours have mislead you
and overcome you.
Your feet have sunk down into the mire,
but they have turned away.’
23 “They’ll bring all your women and children out to the Chaldeans, and you won’t escape from their hand. Indeed, you will be seized by the hand of the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned with fire.”
24 Then Zedekiah told Jeremiah, “Don’t let anyone know about these words and you won’t die. 25 If the officials hear that I’ve spoken with you, and they come to you and say,[w] ‘Tell us what you told the king, and what the king told you; don’t hide it from us, and we won’t put you to death,’ 26 then you are to say to them, ‘I was presenting my request to the king that I not be taken back to the house of Jonathan to die there.’”
27 When all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him, he replied to them exactly as the king had ordered him.[x] So they stopped speaking with him because the conversation had not been overheard. 28 Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard until the day Jerusalem was captured.
The Fall of Jerusalem and the Capture of Zedekiah
39 This is how Jerusalem was captured:[y] In the tenth month of the ninth year of the reign of[z] Zedekiah king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it. 2 On the ninth day of the fourth month, in the eleventh year of the reign of[aa] Zedekiah, the wall of[ab] the city was breached. 3 All the officials of the king of Babylon came and sat in the Middle Gate, including[ac] Nergal-sarri-usur, governor[ad] of Sinmagir,[ae] Nabu-sarrussu-ukin the high official,[af] Nergal-sarri-user, the chief official,[ag] and[ah] all the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon.
4 When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled and went out of the city at night through the king’s garden through the gate between the two walls. Then he went out on the road toward the Arabah. 5 The Chaldean army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah on the plains of Jericho. When they seized him they brought him to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed judgment on him. 6 At Riblah, the king of Babylon executed Zedekiah’s sons right[ai] before his eyes. He[aj] also executed all the nobles of Judah. 7 Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him with bronze fetters to take him to Babylon.
8 The Chaldeans burned the palace and the houses of the people with fire, and they broke down the walls of Jerusalem. 9 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the Babylonian guard, took into exile in Babylon the rest of the people who remained in the city, those who had deserted to Nebuchadnezzar, and the rest of the people who remained. 10 Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left in the land of Judah some of the poor people who did not have anything, and he gave them vineyards and fields on that day.
Jeremiah’s Release from Prison
11 Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave orders concerning Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard: 12 “Take him, look after him, and don’t do anything to harm him. Rather, do for him whatever he tells you.” 13 So Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, Nebushazban, the high official, Nergal-sar-ezer, the chief official, and all the officials of the king of Babylon sent for Jeremiah.[ak] 14 They sent for Jeremiah[al] and took[am] him from the courtyard of the guard. They handed him over to Ahikam’s son Gedaliah, the grandson of Shaphan, to take him home. So he remained among the people.
Ebed-melech Rewarded
15 This message from the Lord came to Jeremiah while he was confined in the courtyard of the guard: 16 “Go and speak to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian: ‘This is what the Lord of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Look, I’m going to fulfill my promise against this city for disaster rather than for good, and on that day it will happen before your eyes. 17 But I’ll deliver you on that day,” declares the Lord. “You won’t be given into the hands of the men you fear. 18 For I’ll surely deliver you, and you won’t fall by the sword. Your life will be spared[an] because you trusted me,” declares the Lord.’”
The Messiah is Superior to Moses
3 Therefore, holy brothers, partners in a heavenly calling, keep your focus on Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession. 2 He was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was in all God’s[a] household, 3 because he is worthy of greater glory than Moses in the same way that the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. 4 After all, every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything. 5 Moses was faithful in all God’s[b] household as a servant who was to testify to what would be said later, 6 but the Messiah[c] was faithful[d] as the Son in charge of God’s[e] household, and we are his household if we hold on to our courage and the hope in which we rejoice.[f]
A Rest for the People of God
7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
8 do not harden your hearts
as they did when they provoked me
during the time of testing in the wilderness.
9 There your ancestors tested me,
even though they had seen my actions 10 for 40 years.
That is why I was indignant with that generation and said,
‘They are always going astray in their hearts,
and they have not known my ways.’
11 So in my anger I swore a solemn oath
that they would never enter my rest.”[g]
12 See to it, my brothers, that no evil, unbelieving heart is found in any of you, as shown by your turning away from the living God. 13 Instead, continue to encourage one another every day, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, 14 because we are the Messiah’s[h] partners only if we hold on to our original confidence to the end.[i] 15 As it is said,
“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts
as they did when they provoked me.”[j]
16 Now who heard him and provoked him? Was it not all those who came out of Egypt led[k] by Moses? 17 And with whom was he angry for 40 years? Was it not with those who sinned and whose bodies fell dead in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would never enter his rest? It was to those who disobeyed him, was it not? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of their unbelief.
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