Jeremiah 38:1-13

1Now Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, and Jucal the 1son of Shelemiah, and 2Pashhur the son of Malchijah heard the words that Jeremiah was speaking to all the people, saying, 2“Thus says the Lord, ‘He who 3stays in this city will die by the 4sword and by famine and by pestilence, but he who goes out to the Chaldeans will live and have his own 5life as booty and stay alive.’ 3Thus says the Lord, ‘This city will certainly be 6given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon and he will capture it.’” 4Then the 7officials said to the king, “Now let this man be put to death, inasmuch as he is 89discouraging the men of war who are left in this city and 10all the people, by speaking such words to them; for this man 11is not seeking the well-being of this people but rather their harm.” 5So King Zedekiah said, “Behold, he is in your 12hands; for the king 13can do nothing against you.” 6Then they took Jeremiah and cast him into the 14cistern of Malchijah the king’s son, which was in the court of the guardhouse; and they let Jeremiah down with ropes. Now in the cistern there was no water but only 15mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud. 7But 16Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, 17a 18eunuch, while he was in the king’s palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. Now the king was sitting in the 19Gate of Benjamin; 8and Ebed-melech went out from the king’s palace and spoke to the king, saying, 9“My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet whom they have cast into the cistern; and he 20will die right where he is because of the famine, for there is 21no more bread in the city.” 10Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, “Take thirty men from here 22under your authority and bring up Jeremiah the prophet from the cistern before he dies.” 11So Ebed-melech took the men under his 23authority and went into the king’s palace to a place beneath the storeroom and took from there worn-out clothes and worn-out rags and let them down by ropes into the cistern to Jeremiah. 12Then Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, “Now put these worn-out clothes and rags under your armpits under the ropes”; and Jeremiah did so. 13So they pulled Jeremiah up with the ropes and lifted him out of the cistern, and Jeremiah stayed in the 24court of the guardhouse.