Moff by section JER 38:1

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Jeremiah 38

38 Jeremiah lay in the qo guard-house. But Shephatiah the son of Mattan, Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, Jehukal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchiah, had heard Jeremiah declaring in public that the Eternal said, 2 “Anyone who remains in the city shall die by the sword or by famine or by plague, but anyone who surrenders to the Chaldeans shall live, escaping with his life,” 3 or that the Eternal said, “This city shall certainly be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon and captured.” 4 So these authorities said to the king, “Pray have this fellow put to death; he takes the heart out of all the citizens and soldiers left within the city, by talking like this! The fellow is out to ruin the city, not to help it!” 5 “Well,” said king Zedekiah, “he is in your hands”--for the king was powerless against them. 6 So they took Jeremiah and put him into an underground cistern belonging to the royal prince Malchiah, below the guard-house, lowering him down with ropes; the cistern held no water, only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud.

7 However, an Ethiopian eunuch called Ebedmelek, belonging to the royal household, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the cistern. 8 So Ebedmelek left the palace to find the king who was then seated as judge at the Benjamin-gate. 9 “Your majesty,” he said, “these men have treated the prophet Jeremiah foully; they have put him into a cistern, and he will die on the spot from starvation, for there is no food left in the city.” 10 Then the king ordered Ebedmelek to take three men and pull Jeremiah out of the cistern before he died. 11 Ebedmelek took the men with him and went to the palace, where he got some torn, tattered rags out of a lumber-room below the treasury; these he lowered by ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern, 12 saying, “Put them between your armpits and the ropes.” 13 Jeremiah did so. And they pulled him up by the ropes out of the cistern.

Jeremiah then stayed in the guard-house. 14 King Zedekiah sent for the prophet Jeremiah to the guards’ entrance into the temple. The king said, “I ask you a question which you must answer frankly.” 15 Jeremiah said to king Zedekiah, “But if I tell you the truth, you will certainly put me to death, will you not? Besides, you will not listen to any advice from me.” 16 So the king swore this oath in secret to Jeremiah: “As the Eternal lives, who made this life of ours, I will not put you to death, nor will I hand you over to these murderous men.”

17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what the Eternal says, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘If you surrender to the king of Babylon’s officers, then you save your life, and this city shall not be burned in flames; you and your household will be spared. 18 But if you will not surrender to the king of Babylon’s officers, then this city shall be handed over to the Chaldeans to be burned in flames, and you cannot escape from their hands.” 19 King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “But I am afraid the Chaldeans may hand me over to the Jews who have deserted to them, and they may ill-treat me.” 20 “They shall not hand you over,” Jeremiah answered; “do listen to what I say--it is the voice of the Eternal--and then all will go well with you, and you shall live. 21 But if you refuse to surrender, then I have this vision for you from the Eternal: 22 I saw all the women who are left within the palace of the king of Judah, led away to the officers of the king of Babylon, and chanting as they went,

‘Your bosom friends have been too much for you

and led you far astray;

they got your feet deep in the mud,

then turned away.’ 23 All your wives and children shall be led away to the Chaldeans, and you yourself cannot escape from their hands; you shall be captured by the king of Babylon, and this city burned in flames.”

24 Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Keep this interview a secret, and your life is safe. 25 If the authorities hear that I have been talking to you, and if they come and ask you to tell them what you said to the king and what the king said to you, on pain of death if you will not disclose it, 26 then you must tell them that you were petitioning the king not to be sent back to die at Jonathan’s house.” 27 The authorities did all come and question Jeremiah, and he answered them just as the king had told him; so they said no more, for the interview had been quite private. 28 Jeremiah then remained within the guardhouse till the day Jerusalem fell.