Jeremiah 38
Jeremiah escapes death in prison
Officials call for Jeremiah’s execution
1Four officials in the crowd heard Jeremiah talking to the people. The men were:- Shephatiah son of Mattan,
- Gedaliah son of Pashhur,
- Jucal son of Shelemiah,
- Pashhur son of Malchiah.
4The four officials went to the king and said “This man needs to die now. He is demoralizing the few soldiers who haven’t yet deserted to Babylon. And he’s depressing the people who came here for protection. This man isn’t helping the people. He’s hurting them.”
5King Zedekiah said, “Well, take him. We have him in custody here. I'm turning him over to your custody because there's nothing I could do to stop you.” 6The officials got some rope and lowered Jeremiah into a muddy cistern. [1] He sank deep into the crud. The cistern belonged to one of the king's sons, Malchiah. This was in the palace guard’s courtyard area, where they had been holding him.
King releases Jeremiah from cistern
7An Ethiopian man named Ebed-melech heard that Jeremiah was imprisoned in a cistern. The king was out in public at the time, sitting by the Benjamin Gate. 8Ebed-melech left the palace area and went directly to the king. He told the king, 9“My master and king, those evil men did a terrible thing when they dropped Jeremiah into a cistern and have left him there to die of starvation. There’s no bread left in the city.”10The king told Ebed-melech, “Find three men to help you pull Jeremiah up out of the cistern before he dies.”
11Ebed-melech rounded up some men to help him. He went first to the palace into the storage room where they kept clothing. He gathered up a few old worn out clothes. He lowered them down to Jeremiah using ropes. 12Then he told Jeremiah, “Stuff these old clothes under your arms to protect yourself from the ropes.” That's what Jeremiah did.
13The men hauled Jeremiah up out of the cistern. But he remained under arrest in the courtyard of the palace guards.
King Zedekiah talks with Jeremiah
14King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah a third time. They met at an entrance into the Temple courtyard. The king told Jeremiah, “I need to ask you something and I don't want you to hold back anything.”15Jeremiah said, “What can I say to you? If I tell you what's going to happen, you will execute me. Am I wrong? And if I tell you what you need to do, you won't listen to me. Will you?”
16King Zedekiah made Jeremiah a solemn promise: “As sure as the LORD lives and has given us our very lives, I will not take your life. And I will not hand you over to the men who want to execute you.”
17Jeremiah told Zedekiah, “This is what the LORD God of everyone and the God of Israel says to you. If you surrender to representatives of the king of Babylon, you will save your life. You will be spared. So will the city. It will not be burned and your family will live. 18But if you do not surrender to Babylon’s officials, the Babylonian army will take the city and burn it. You will not escape.”
19The king confided to Jeremiah, “Look, I'm afraid of our people who have deserted to the Babylonians. I'm afraid Babylon’s soldiers will hand me over to them and my own people will torture me and abuse me.”
20Jeremiah said, “Stop it. That's not going to happen. Just do what the LORD has told you to do, and things will go well for you. You will live. 21But if your head is stuck on staying in here and you refuse to surrender, this is what the Lord has shown me in a vision [2] will happen.
22All the women in your household will be captured and divvied out to Babylonian officials. Then the people will taunt you by saying,
Friends gave you bad advice.
You took it and ran it into the ground.
Now look at your feet stuck in the mud.
Look at your friends; where did they go?
24Zedekiah told Jeremiah, “Don't tell anyone about this conversation. If you do I will execute you. 25Let’s say some officials come to you and say, “Tell us what you told the king, or we will put you to death.” Don’t tell them the truth. 26Instead, tell them you were pleading with me not to send you back to the prison at Jonathan's house.”
27Sure enough, the officials cornered Jeremiah and asked him what he and the king talked about. Jeremiah used the cover story that the king had suggested. That silenced the curious officials. They stopped asking Jeremiah about it. 28Jeremiah remained under arrest [3] in the courtyard of the guards until Babylonian soldiers took the city of Jerusalem.
Footnotes
138:6
A cistern was a storage pit to collect rainwater or water hauled from a spring or a stream. The cistern was often chiseled out of stone and lined with waterproof plaster. The Hebrew word here can mean more than that, though: bôr. It can mean: pit, well, cistern, and more. But it’s almost always some kind of hole in the ground.
238:21
The most common vision among prophets seemed to come in vivid dreams known as visions of the night.
338:28
Babylonians found out that Jeremiah had recommended surrender, so they freed him to go wherever he wanted. Against his will, fellow Israelites took him to Egypt to escape Babylon’s revenge. Some Israelites murdered the governor that Babylon installed for the new Babylonian province, which replaced the Jewish nation.
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Maps/Guides
Gates of Jerusalem 520 BC