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JER EM IAH 39
page 703
4 So these officials went to the king and said,
“Sir, this man must die! That kind of talk will
undermine the morale of the few fighting men
we have left, as well as that of all the people.
This man is a traitor!”
5 King Zedekiah agreed. “All right,” he said.
“Do as you like. I can’t stop you.”
6 So the officials took Jeremiah from his cell
and lowered him by ropes into an empty cistern in the prison yard. It belonged to Malkijah, a member of the royal family. There was no
water in the cistern, but there was a thick layer
of mud at the bottom, and Jeremiah sank down
into it.
7 But Ebed-melech the Ethiopian,* an important court official, heard that Jeremiah was in
the cistern. At that time the king was holding
court at the Benjamin Gate, 8 so Ebed-melech
rushed from the palace to speak with him. 9 “My
lord the king,” he said, “these men have done a
very evil thing in putting Jeremiah the prophet
into the cistern. He will soon die of hunger, for
almost all the bread in the city is gone.”
10 So the king told Ebed-melech, “Take thirty
of my men with you, and pull Jeremiah out of
the cistern before he dies.”
11 So Ebed-melech took the men with him
and went to a room in the palace beneath the
treasury, where he found some old rags and discarded clothing. He carried these to the cistern
and lowered them to Jeremiah on a rope. 12 Ebedmelech called down to Jeremiah, “Put these
rags under your armpits to protect you from the
ropes.” Then when Jeremiah was ready, 13 they
pulled him out. So Jeremiah was returned to
the courtyard of the guard—the palace prison—
where he remained.
Zedekiah Questions Jeremiah
14 One day King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah and
had him brought to the third entrance of the
Lord’s Temple. “I want to ask you something,”
the king said. “And don’t try to hide the truth.”
15 Jeremiah said, “If I tell you the truth, you
will kill me. And if I give you advice, you won’t
listen to me anyway.”
16 So King Zedekiah secretly promised him,
“As surely as the Lord our Creator lives, I will
not kill you or hand you over to the men who
want you dead.”
17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is
what the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, the
God of Israel, says: ‘If you surrender to the
Babylonian officers, you and your family will
38:7 Hebrew the Cushite. 39:1a Hebrew In the tenth month,
of the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar. A number of events
in Jeremiah can be cross-checked with dates in surviving
Babylonian records and related accurately to our modern
calendar. This event occurred on January 15, 588 b.c.; see
52:4a and the note there. 39:1b Hebrew Nebuchadrezzar,
a variant spelling of Nebuchadnezzar; also in 39:5, 11.
39:2 Hebrew On the ninth day of the fourth month. This day
was July 18, 586 b.c.; also see note on 39:1a. 39:3 Or Nergalsharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsekim. 39:4 Hebrew the Arabah.
live, and the city will not be burned down.
if you refuse to surrender, you will not escape! This city will be handed over to the Babylonians, and they will burn it to the ground.’”
19 “But I am afraid to surrender,” the king
said, “for the Babylonians may hand me over
to the Judeans who have defected to them. And
who knows what they will do to me!”
20 Jeremiah replied, “You won’t be handed
over to them if you choose to obey the Lord.
Your life will be spared, and all will go well for
you. 21 But if you refuse to surrender, this is what
the Lord has revealed to me: 22 All the women
left in your palace will be brought out and given
to the officers of the Babylonian army. Then the
women will taunt you, saying,
18 But
‘What fine friends you have!
They have betrayed and misled you.
When your feet sank in the mud,
they left you to your fate!’
23 All your wives and children will be led out to
the Babylonians, and you will not escape. You
will be seized by the king of Babylon, and this
city will be burned down.”
24 Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Don’t tell
anyone you told me this, or you will die! 25 My
officials may hear that I spoke to you, and they
may say, ‘Tell us what you and the king were
talking about. If you don’t tell us, we will kill
you.’ 26 If this happens, just tell them you begged
me not to send you back to Jonathan’s dungeon,
for fear you would die there.”
27 Sure enough, it wasn’t long before the
king’s officials came to Jeremiah and asked him
why the king had called for him. But Jeremiah
followed the king’s instructions, and they left
without finding out the truth. No one had overheard the conversation between Jeremiah and
the king. 28 And Jeremiah remained a prisoner
in the courtyard of the guard until the day Jerusalem was captured.
The Fall of Jerusalem
In January* of the ninth year of King Zedekiah’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar* of
Babylon came with his entire army to besiege Jerusalem. 2 Two and a half years later, on July 18*
in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign, a section of the city wall was broken down. 3 All the
officers of the Babylonian army came in and sat
in triumph at the Middle Gate: Nergal-sharezer
of Samgar, and Nebo-sarsekim,* a chief officer,
and Nergal-sharezer, the king’s adviser, and all
the other officers of the king of Babylon.
4 When King Zedekiah of Judah and all the
soldiers saw that the Babylonians had broken
into the city, they fled. They waited for nightfall
and then slipped through the gate between the
two walls behind the king’s garden and headed
toward the Jordan Valley.*
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