Jeremiah 38
1 Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehukal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malkijah heard the words that Jeremiah was declaring to all the people. He was saying,
At that time, saith the Lord, I will be a God to the family of Israel, and they shall be to me a people.
2 “Yahweh says this: Anyone staying in this city will be killed by sword, famine, and plague. But anyone who goes out to the Chaldeans will survive. He will escape with his own life, and live.
Thus saith the Lord, I found him warm in the wilderness with them that were slain with the sword: go ye and destroy not Israel.
3 Yahweh says this: This city will be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.”
The Lord appeared to him from afar, [saying], I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore have I drawn thee in compassion.
4 So the officials said to the king, “Let this man die, for in this way he is weakening the hands of the fighting men who remain in this city, and the hands of all the people. He is proclaiming these words, for this man is not working for safety for this people, but disaster.”
For I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt yet take thy timbrel, and go forth with the party of them that make merry.
5 So King Zedekiah said, “Look, he is in your hand since there is no king able to resist you.”
For ye have planted vineyards on the mountains of Samaria: plant ye, and praise.
6 Then they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Malkijah, son of the king. The cistern was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah down on ropes. There was no water in the cistern, but it was muddy, and he sank down into the mud.
For it is a day when those that plead on the mountains of Ephraim shall call, [saying], Arise ye, and go up to Sion to the Lord your God.
7 Now Ebed-Melek the Cushite was one of the eunuchs in the king's house. He heard that they had placed Jeremiah in the cistern. Now the king was sitting at the Benjamin Gate.
For thus saith the Lord to Jacob; Rejoice ye, and exult over the head of the nations: make proclamation, and praise ye: say, The Lord has delivered his people, the remnant of Israel.
8 So Ebed-Melek went from the king's house and spoke with the king. He said,
Behold, I bring them from the north, and will gather them from the end of the earth to the feast of the passover: and [the people] shall beget a great multitude, and they shall return hither.
9 “My master the king, these men have done evil with the way they have treated Jeremiah the prophet. They threw him into a cistern for him to die in it from hunger, since there is no more food in the city.”
They went forth with weeping, and I will bring them back with consolation, causing them to lodge by the channels of waters in a straight way, and they shall not err in it: for I am become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born.
10 Then the king gave a command to Ebed-Melek the Cushite. He said, “Take command of thirty men from here and take Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.”
Hear the words of the Lord, ye nations, and proclaim [them] to the islands afar off; say, He that scattered Israel will also gather him, and keep him as one that feeds his flock.
11 So Ebed-Melek took command of those men and went to the king's house, to a storeroom for clothing under the house. From there he took rags and worn-out clothing and then let them down by ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern.
For the Lord has ransomed Jacob, he has rescued him out of the hand of them [that were] stronger than he.
12 Ebed-Melek the Cushite said to Jeremiah, “Put the rags and worn-out clothing under your arms and on top of the ropes.” So Jeremiah did so.
And they shall come, and shall rejoice in the mount of Sion, and shall come to the good things of the Lord, [even] to a land of corn, and wine, and fruits, and cattle, and sheep: and their soul shall be as a fruitful tree; and they shall hunger no more.
13 Then they pulled Jeremiah by the ropes. In this way they brought him up from the cistern. So Jeremiah stayed in the courtyard of the guard.
Then shall the virgins rejoice in the assembly of youth, and the old men shall rejoice; and I will turn their mourning into joy, and will make them merry.
14 Then King Zedekiah sent word and brought Jeremiah the prophet to himself, to the third entrance in Yahweh's house. The king said to Jeremiah, “I want to ask you something. Do not keep the answer from me.”
I will expand and cheer with wine the soul of the priests the sons of Levi, and my people shall be satisfied with my good things: thus saith the Lord.
15 Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I answer you, will you not certainly kill me? But if I give you advice, you will not listen to me.”
A voice was heard in Rama, of lamentation, and of weeping, and wailing; Rachel would not cease weeping for her children, because they are not.
16 But King Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah in private and said, “As Yahweh lives, the one who made us, I will not kill you or give you into the hand of those men who are seeking your life.”
Thus saith the Lord; Let thy voice cease from weeping, and thine eyes from thy tears: for their is a reward for thy works; and they shall return from the land of [thine] enemies.
17 So Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “Yahweh, God of hosts, God of Israel, says this: If you indeed go out to the officials of the king of Babylon then you will live, and this city will not be burned. You and your family will live.
[There shall be] an abiding [home] for thy children.
18 But if you do not go out to the officials of the king of Babylon, then this city will be given into the hand of the Chaldeans. They will burn it, and you will not escape from their hand.”
I have heard the sound of Ephraim lamenting, [and saying], Thou hast chastened me, and I was chastened; I as a calf was not [willingly] taught: turn thou me, and I shall turn; for thou [art] the Lord my God.
19 King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “But I am afraid of the people of Judah who have deserted to the Chaldeans, because I might be given over into their hand, for them to treat me badly.”
For after my captivity I repented; and after I knew, I groaned for the day of shame, and shewed thee that I bore reproach from my youth.
20 Jeremiah said, “They will not give you over to them. Obey the message from Yahweh that I am telling you, so that things will go well for you, and so that you will live.
Ephraim is a beloved son, a pleasing child to me: for because my words are in him, I will surely remember him: therefore I made haste [to help] him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord.
21 But if you refuse to go out, this is what Yahweh has shown me.
Prepare thyself, O Sion; execute vengeance; look to thy ways: return, O virgin of Israel, by the way by which thou wentest, return mourning to thy cities.
22 Look! All the women who are left in your house, king of Judah, will be brought out to the officials of the king of Babylon. These women will say to you, 'You have been deceived by your friends; they have ruined you. Your feet are now sunk into the mud, and your friends will run away.'
How long, O disgraced daughter, wilt thou turn away? for the Lord has created safety for a new plantation: men shall go about in safety.
23 For all of your wives and children will be brought out to the Chaldeans, and you yourself will not escape from their hand. You will be captured by the hand of the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned.”
For thus saith the Lord; They shall yet speak this word in the land of Juda, and in the cities thereof, when I shall turn his captivity; blessed be the Lord on his righteous holy mountain!
24 Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Do not inform anyone about these words, so that you do not die.
And there shall be dwellers in the cities of Juda, and in all his land, together with the husbandman, and [the shepherd] shall go forth with the flock.
25 If the officials hear that I have talked with you, and if they come and say to you, 'Tell us what you said to the king and do not hide it from us, or we will kill you,'
For I have saturated every thirsting soul, and filled every hungry soul.
26 then you must say to them, 'I made a humble plea before the king that he would not return me to the house of Jonathan to die there.'”
Therefore I awake, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet to me.
27 Then all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him, so he answered them as the king had instructed him. So they stopped talking with him, because they had not heard the conversation between Jeremiah and the king.
Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Juda with the seed of man, and the seed of beast.
28 So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard until the day Jerusalem was captured.
And it shall come to pass, that as I watched over them, to pull down, and to afflict, so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the Lord.
In those days they shall certainly not say, The fathers ate a sour grape, and the children's teeth were set on edge.
But every one shall die in his own sin; and the teeth of him that eats the sour grape shall be set on edge.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Juda:
not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day when I took hold of their hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; for they abode not in my covenant, and I disregarded them, saith the Lord.
For this is my covenant which I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, saith the Lord, I will surely put my laws into their mind, and write them on their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.
And they shall not at all teach every one his [fellow] citizen, and every one his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them: for I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins I will remember no more.
Thus saith the Lord, who gives the sun for a light by day, the moon and the stars for a light by night, and [makes] a roaring in the sea, so that the waves thereof roar; the Lord Almighty is his name:
if these ordinances cease from before me, saith the Lord, then shall the family of Israel cease to be a nation before me forever.
Though the sky should be raised to a [greater] height, saith the Lord, and though the ground of the earth should be sunk [lower] beneath, yet I will not cast off the family of Israel, saith the Lord, for all that they have done.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when the city shall be built to the Lord from the tower of Anameel to the gate of the corner.
And the measurement of it shall proceed in front of them as far as the hills of Gareb, and it shall be compassed with a circular wall of choice stones.
And all the Asaremoth even to Nachal Kedron, as far as the corner of the horse-gate eastward, shall be holiness to the Lord; and it shall not fail any more, and shall not be destroyed for ever.
