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1 Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jucal*Or “Jehucal.” Jeremiah 37:3. son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malchijah heard what Jeremiah was telling everyone: 2 This is what the Lord says: Anyone who remains in this city will die from war and famine and disease, but anyone who goes over to the Babylonians will live. Their reward will be to save their lives. 3 This is what the Lord says: Be sure of this—Jerusalem will be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon. He is going to capture it.
4 The officers told the king, “This man deserves to die because he's demoralizing the defenders left in the city, and all the people too, by telling them this. This man isn't trying to help these people, he's only going to destroy them.”
5 “Well, you can do whatever you want to him,” King Zedekiah replied. “I can't stop you.” 6 So they took Jeremiah and put him in the cistern belonging to Malchiah, the king's son, which was in the guard's courtyard. They lowered Jeremiah down with ropes into the cistern. It didn't have any water, only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.
7 Ebed-melech the Cushite,†“Cush” is usually thought to refer to upper Egypt. “Ebed-melech” means “servant of the king.” a royal official in the king's palace, found out that they had put Jeremiah in the cistern. The king was sitting at the Benjamin Gate,‡This probably means that the king was deciding legal cases. 8 so Ebed-melech left the palace and went to talk to the king 9 “My lord the king, all these terrible things these men have done to Jeremiah the prophet are evil. They've put him in the cistern, and he'll starve to death there because there's no more bread left in the city.”
10 So the king gave the order to Ebed-melech the Cushite, “Take thirty men with you and go and pull Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.” 11 Ebed-melech took the men and went to the storehouse under the palace. He took some rags and old clothes from there and then went to the cistern where he lowered them with ropes to Jeremiah.
12 Ebed-melech the Cushite called down to Jeremiah, “Put these rags and old clothes under your arms to protect you from the ropes.” Jeremiah did so, 13 and using the ropes they pulled him up and took him out of the cistern. Jeremiah stayed there in the guard's courtyard.
14 Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and met him at the third Temple entrance. “I need to ask you something,” the king told Jeremiah. “You mustn't hide anything from me.”
15 “If I tell you then you'll definitely have me killed,” Jeremiah replied. “Even if I were to give you advice, you wouldn't listen to me anyway.”
16 King Zedekiah solemnly promised Jeremiah in private, “As the Lord lives, who gave us this life, I won't have you killed, and I won't hand you over to those who want to kill you.”
17 Then Jeremiah told Zedekiah, “This is what the Lord God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you hand yourself over to the officers of the king of Babylon, then you'll live. Jerusalem won't be burned down, and you and your family will survive. 18 But if you don't hand yourself over to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city will be given to the Babylonians. They will burn it down, and you yourself won't escape being captured.’ ”
19 But King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of those people of Judah who have gone over to the Babylonians, because the Babylonians might hand me over to them so they could abuse me.”
20 “They won't hand you over,” Jeremiah replied. “If you obey what the Lord says by doing what I tell you, then things will go well for you and you'll live. 21 But if you refuse to hand yourself over, this is what the Lord has told me: 22 All the women who are left in the palace of the king of Judah will be led out and handed over to the officials of the king of Babylon Those women will say: ‘Those good friends of yours! You were taken in by them and conquered by them. Your feet got stuck in the mud, so they abandoned you.’ 23 All your wives and children will be handed over to the Chaldeans. And you yourself will not escape, for you will be captured by the king of Babylon, and Jerusalem will be burned down.”
24 Zedekiah warned Jeremiah, “Nobody can find out about this conversation, otherwise you'll die. 25 If the officers find out that I've talked with you, and they come and ask you, ‘Tell us what you and the king were talking about! Don't hide anything from us, or we'll kill you;’ 26 then you are to tell them, ‘I was asking the king to grant my request not to return me to the house of Jonathan to die there.’ ”
27 When all the officers came to Jeremiah wanting to know, he repeated to them exactly what the king had told him to say. So they didn't ask him anything more because no one had heard what had been said. 28 Jeremiah remained there in the guard's courtyard until the day Jerusalem was captured.

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*38:1 Or “Jehucal.” Jeremiah 37:3.

†38:7 “Cush” is usually thought to refer to upper Egypt. “Ebed-melech” means “servant of the king.”

‡38:7 This probably means that the king was deciding legal cases.

© 2018 Dr. Jonathan Gallagher