Jeremias 38

1 At that time, saith the Lord, I will be a God to the family of Israel, and they shall be to me a people.

And Shephatiah son of Mattan, and Gedaliah son of Pashhur, and Jucal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malchiah, hear the words that Jeremiah is speaking to all the people, saying,

2 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.

“Thus said YHWH: He who is remaining in this city dies, by sword, by famine, and by pestilence, and he who is going forth to the Chaldeans lives, and his soul has been to him for a prey, and he lives.

3 The Lord appeared to him from afar, [saying], I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore have I drawn thee in compassion.

Thus said YHWH: This city is certainly given into the hand of the force of the king of Babylon, and he has captured it.”

4 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.

And the heads say to the king, “Now let this man be put to death, because that he is making feeble the hands of the men of war who are left in this city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking to them according to these words, for this man is not seeking for the peace of this people, but for its calamity.”

5 For ye have planted vineyards on the mountains of Samaria: plant ye, and praise.

And King Zedekiah says, “Behold, he [is] in your hand: for the king is not able [to do] anything against you.”

6 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.

And they take Jeremiah, and cast him into the pit of Malchiah son of the king, that [is] in the court of the prison, and they send Jeremiah down with cords; and there is no water in the pit, but mire, and Jeremiah sinks in the mire.

7 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.

And Ebed-Melech the Cushite, a eunuch who [is] in the king’s house, hears that they have put Jeremiah into the pit; and the king is sitting at the Gate of Benjamin,

8 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.

and Ebed-Melech goes forth from the king’s house, and speaks to the king, saying,

9 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.

“My lord, O king, these men have done evil [in] all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they have cast into the pit, and he dies in his place because of the famine, for there is no more bread in the city.”

10 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.

And the king commands Ebed-Melech the Cushite, saying, “Take with you thirty men from here, and you have brought up Jeremiah the prophet from the pit, before he dies.”

11 For the Lord has ransomed Jacob, he has rescued him out of the hand of them [that were] stronger than he.

And Ebed-Melech takes the men with him, and enters the house of the king, to the place of the treasury, and takes there worn-out shreds of cloth, and worn-out rags, and sends them by cords into the pit to Jeremiah.

12 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.

And Ebed-Melech the Cushite says to Jeremiah, “Now put the worn-out pieces of cloth and rags under your arms, at the place of the cords,” and Jeremiah does so,

13 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.

and they draw Jeremiah out with cords, and bring him up out of the pit, and Jeremiah dwells in the court of the prison.

14 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.

And King Zedekiah sends, and takes Jeremiah the prophet to him, to the third entrance that [is] in the house of YHWH, and the king says to Jeremiah, “I am asking you something, do not hide anything from me.”

15 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.

And Jeremiah says to Zedekiah, “When I declare [it] to you, do you not surely put me to death? And when I counsel you, you do not listen to me.”

16 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.

And King Zedekiah swears to Jeremiah in secret, saying, “YHWH lives, He who made this soul for us, I do not put you to death, nor give you into the hand of these men who are seeking your soul.”

17 [There shall be] an abiding [home] for thy children.

And Jeremiah says to Zedekiah, “Thus said YHWH, God of Hosts, God of Israel: If you certainly go forth to the heads of the king of Babylon, then your soul has lived, and this city is not burned with fire, indeed, you have lived, you and your house.

18 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.

And if you do not go forth to the heads of the king of Babylon, then this city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they have burned it with fire, and you do not escape from their hand.”

19 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.

And King Zedekiah says to Jeremiah, “I am fearing the Jews who have fallen to the Chaldeans, lest they give me into their hand, and they have insulted me.”

20 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.

And Jeremiah says, “They do not give you up; please listen to the voice of YHWH, to that which I am speaking to you, and it is well for you, and your soul lives.

21 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.

And if you are refusing to go forth, this [is] the thing that YHWH has shown me:

22 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.

That, behold, all the women who have been left in the house of the king of Judah are brought forth to the heads of the king of Babylon, and behold, they are saying: Persuaded you, and prevailed against you, Have your allies, Your feet have sunk into mire, They have been turned backward.

23 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!

And all your wives and your sons are brought forth to the Chaldeans, and you do not escape from their hand, for you are caught by the hand of the king of Babylon, and this city is burned with fire.”

24 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.

And Zedekiah says to Jeremiah, “Let no man know of these words, and you do not die;

25 For I have saturated every thirsting soul, and filled every hungry soul.

and when the heads hear that I have spoken with you, and they have come to you, and have said to you, Now declare to us what you spoke to the king, do not hide [it] from us, and we do not put you to death, and what the king spoke to you,

26 Therefore I awake, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet to me.

then you have said to them, I am causing my supplication to fall before the king, not to cause me to return to the house of Jonathan, to die there.”

27 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.

And all the heads come to Jeremiah, and ask him, and he declares to them according to all these words that the king commanded, and they keep silent from him, for the matter was not heard;

28 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.

and Jeremiah dwells in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem has been captured, and he was [there] when Jerusalem was captured.

29 In those days they shall certainly not say, The fathers ate a sour grape, and the children's teeth were set on edge.

30 But every one shall die in his own sin; and the teeth of him that eats the sour grape shall be set on edge.

31 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:

32 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.

33 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.

34 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.

35 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:

36 if these ordinances cease from before me, saith the Lord, then shall the family of Israel cease to be a nation before me forever.

37 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.

38 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.

39 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.

40 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.