Jeremias 38

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

Now Saphatias the son of Mathan, and Gedelias the son of Phassur, and Juchal the son of Selemias, and Phassur the son of Melchias heard the words that Jeremias spoke to all the people, saying:

2 Thus says the Lord, I found him warm in the wilderness with them that were slain with the sword: go you and destroy not Israel.

Thus saith the Lord: Whosoever shell remain in this city, shall die by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence: but he that shall go forth to the Chaldeans, shall live, and his life shall be safe, and he shall live.

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

Thus saith the Lord: This city shall surely be delivered into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it.

4 For I will build you, and you shall be built, O virgin of Israel: you shall yet take your timbrel, and go forth with the party of them that make merry.

And the princes said to the king: We beseech thee that this man may be put to death: for on purpose he weakeneth the hands of the men of war, that remain in this city, and the hands of the people, speaking to them according to these words: for this man seeketh not peace to this people, but evil.

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

And king Sedecias said: Behold he is in your hands: for it is not lawful for the king to deny you any thing.

6 For it is a day when those that plead on the mountains of Ephraim shall call, [saying], Arise you, and go up to Sion to the Lord your God.

Then they took Jeremias and cast him into the dungeon of Melchias the son of Amelech, which was in the entry of the prison: and they let down Jeremias by ropes into the dungeon, wherein there was no water, but mire. And Jeremias sunk into the mire.

7 For thus says the Lord to Jacob; Rejoice you, and exult over the head of the nations: make proclamation, and praise you: say, The Lord has delivered his people, the remnant of Israel.

Now Abdemelech the Ethiopian, an eunuch that was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremias in the dungeon: but the king was sitting in 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 Abdemelech went out of the king’s house, and spoke 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 firstborn.

My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done against Jeremias the prophet, casting him into the dungeon to die there with hunger, for there is no more bread in the city.

10 Hear the words of the Lord, you 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.

Then the king commanded Abdemelech the Ethiopian, saying: Take from hence thirty men with thee, and draw up Jeremias the prophet out of the dungeon, before he die.

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

So Abdemelech taking the men with him, went into the king’s house that was under the storehouse: and he took from thence old rags, and old rotten things, and he let them down by cords to Jeremias into the dungeon.

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 Abdemelech the Ethiopian said to Jeremias: Put these old rags and these rent and rotten things under thy arms, and upon the cords: and Jeremias did 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 drew up Jeremias with the cords, and brought him forth out of the dungeon. And Jeremias remained in the entry 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 says the Lord.

And king Sedecias sent, and took Jeremias the prophet to him to the third gate, that was in the house of the Lord: and the king said to Jeremias: I will ask thee a thing, hide nothing 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.

Then Jeremias said to Sedecias: If I shall declare it to thee, wilt thou not put me to death? and if I give thee counsel, thou wilt not hearken to me.

16 Thus says the Lord; Let your voice cease from weeping, and your eyes from your tears: for their is a reward for your works; and they shall return from the land of [your] enemies.

Then king Sedecias swore to Jeremias, in private, saying: As the Lord liveth, that made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, nor will I deliver thee into the hands of these men that seek thy life.

17 [There shall be] an dwelling [home] for your children.

And Jeremias said to Sedecias: Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: If thou wilt take a resolution and go out to the princes of the king of Babylon, thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burnt with fire: and thou shalt be safe, and thy house.

18 I have heard the sound of Ephraim lamenting, [and saying], You have chastened me, and I was chastened; I as a calf was not [willingly] taught: turn you me, and I shall turn; for you [are] the Lord my God.

But if thou wilt not go out to the princes of the king of Babylon, this city shall be delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire: and thou shalt not escape out of their hands.

19 For after my captivity I repented; and after I knew, I groaned for the day of shame, and showed you that I bore reproach from my youth.

And king Sedecias said to Jeremias: I am afraid because of the Jews that are fled over to the Chaldeans: lest I should be delivered into their hands, and they should abuse 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, says the Lord.

But Jeremias answered: They shall not deliver thee: hearken, I beseech thee, to the word of the Lord, which I speak to thee, and it shall be well with thee, and thy soul shall live.

21 Prepare yourself, O Sion; execute vengeance; look to your ways: return, O virgin of Israel, by the way by which you went, return mourning to your cities.

But if thou wilt not go forth, this is the word which the Lord hath shewn me:

22 How long, O disgraced daughter, will you turn away? for the Lord has created safety for a new plantation: men shall go about in safety.

Behold all the women that are left in the house of the king of Juda, shall be brought out to the princes of the king of Babylon: and they shall say: Thy men of peace have deceived thee, and have prevailed against thee, they have plunged thy feet in the mire, and in a slippery place, and they have departed from thee.

23 For thus says 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 thy wives, and thy children shall be brought out to the Chaldeans, and thou shalt not escape their hands, but thou shalt be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon: and he shall burn this city 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.

Then Sedecias said to Jeremias: Let no man know these words, and thou shalt not die.

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

But if the princes shall hear that I have spoken with thee, and shall come to thee, and say to thee: Tell us what thou hast said to the king, hide it not from us, and we will not kill thee: and also what the king said to thee:

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

Thou shalt say to them: I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not command me to be carried back into the house of Jonathan, to die there.

27 Therefore, behold, the days come, says 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.

So all the princes came to Jeremias, and asked him: and he spoke to them according to all the words that the king had commanded him: and they left him: for nothing had been 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, says the Lord.

But Jeremias remained in the entry of the prison, until the day that Jerusalem was taken: and it came to pass that Jerusalem was taken.

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, says 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, says the Lord.

33 For this is my covenant which I will make with the house of Israel; after those days, says 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 says 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, says 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, says the Lord, and though the ground of the earth should be sunk [lower] beneath, yet I will not cast off the family of Israel, says the Lord, for all that they have done.

38 Behold, the days come, says 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.