Jeremiah 38:1-28

The officials of Jerusalem were listening to me as I was prophesying, including Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jucal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malchiah. I told them: “YAHWEH says that whoever stays in this city will die by sword, plague, or food shortages, but anyone who leaves the city and surrenders to the Babylonians will escape with their lives and live. For YAHWEH has said, ‘I will certainly hand over Jerusalem to the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.’ ” Then the officials said to the king, “This traitor must die! His words are demoralizing the soldiers and all the people left in the city. This man is not seeking the welfare of the people but their ruin.” King Zedekiah answered, “He is in your hands, so do what you want, I will not stand in your way.” So they took me and put me into the muddy cistern of the king’s son Malchiah in the palace courtyard. There was little water in the cistern, only mud. They lowered me down with ropes, and I sank down deep into the mud. Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, a palace official, heard that I had been put into the cistern. As the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate, Ebed-Melech came out from the palace and spoke to the king. “My lord the king,” he said, “these evil men were wrong to throw the prophet Jeremiah into a muddy cistern. He will starve to death there since there is no more food left in the city.” So the king commanded Ebed-Melech, “Take thirty men with you from the palace guard and pull the prophet Jeremiah out of the cistern before he dies.” So he went with the men into the palace to a room under the treasury and took some worn-out clothing and rags and lowered them on ropes to me in the cistern. Ebed-Melech then shouted down to me, “Here, put these worn-out clothes and rags under your armpits to pad the ropes.” So they hauled me up from the cistern and pulled me out, and I remained in confinement in the palace guardhouse. Later, King Zedekiah summoned me to meet him at his private entrance to the temple of YAHWEH. “I want to ask you for a word,” the king said to me, “and keep nothing back from me.” I answered him, “If I tell you the truth you will put me to death. And if I tell you what you should do, you will not listen to me.” King Zedekiah then secretly promised me with an oath, saying, “As surely as YAHWEH, the giver of this life of ours, lives, I will neither have you put to death nor hand you over to these men who are determined to kill you.” “Well then,” I said to Zedekiah, “YAHWEH, the God of Israel, Commander of Angel Armies says, ‘If you go out and surrender to Nebuchadnezzar’s generals, your life will be spared, and Jerusalem will not be burned down. You and your family will survive. But if you do not surrender to Nebuchadnezzar’s generals, this city will be handed over to the Babylonians, they will burn it down, and I will make sure that you are taken prisoner by your enemies.’ ” King Zedekiah then said to me, “I’m afraid of our own people who have already defected to the Babylonians. They might give me into their hands; then they will torture me!” “That will not happen,” I told him. “Please listen to YAHWEH’s voice in what I say, and then it will go well with you, and your life will be spared. YAHWEH has given me a vision of what will happen to you if you refuse to surrender. I saw all the women left in the king’s palace being led out and given to the generals of the king of Babylon. And they were all taunting you as they were led away: “ ‘Your trusted friends led you astray and overcame you! They told you to resist, as they all ran away! See, now your feet are stuck in the mire, yes, you’re trapped so deep in the mud.’ “Yes, all your wives and children will be marched out into your enemy’s camp. And you, Zedekiah, will be a prisoner in the clutches of the king of Babylon, powerless to escape. And this city will be burned to the ground.” Zedekiah then said to me, “If you wish to keep on living, tell no one about our conversation. If my officials hear that I have been talking to you, and they come and ask you, ‘What did you say to the king and what did the king say to you? You’d better tell us everything, or we will kill you,’ then you must reply, ‘I humbly begged the king not to send me back to the prison at Jonathan’s house to die there.’ ” In fact, the officials did come to interrogate me about my meeting with the king, so I told them exactly what he had instructed me to say. Because no one overheard my conversation with the king, they stopped questioning me at that point. And so, I remained confined in the palace guardhouse until the tragic day Jerusalem was captured.