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.

Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jucal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malchijah heard what Jeremiah was telling everyone:

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.

This is what the Lord says: Anyone who remains in this city will die from war and famine and disease, but anyone who goes over to the Babylonians will live. Their reward will be to save their lives.

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

This is what the Lord says: Be sure of this—Jerusalem will be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon. He is going to capture 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.

The officers told the king, “This man deserves to die because he's demoralizing the defenders left in the city, and all the people too, by telling them this. This man isn't trying to help these people, he's only going to destroy them.”

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

“Well, you can do whatever you want to him,” King Zedekiah replied. “I can't stop you.”

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.

So they took Jeremiah and put him in the cistern belonging to Malchiah, the king's son, which was in the guard's courtyard. They lowered Jeremiah down with ropes into the cistern. It didn't have any water, only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.

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.

Ebed-melech the Cushite, a royal official in the king's palace, found out that they had put Jeremiah in the cistern. The king was sitting at the Benjamin Gate,

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.

so Ebed-melech left the palace and went to talk to the king

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, all these terrible things these men have done to Jeremiah the prophet are evil. They've put him in the cistern, and he'll starve to death there because there's no more bread left 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.

So the king gave the order to Ebed-melech the Cushite, “Take thirty men with you and go and pull Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern 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.

Ebed-melech took the men and went to the storehouse under the palace. He took some rags and old clothes from there and then went to the cistern where he lowered them with ropes 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.

Ebed-melech the Cushite called down to Jeremiah, “Put these rags and old clothes under your arms to protect you from the ropes.” Jeremiah 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 using the ropes they pulled him up and took him out of the cistern. Jeremiah stayed there in the guard's courtyard.

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.

Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and met him at the third Temple entrance. “I need to ask you something,” the king told Jeremiah. “You mustn't 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.

“If I tell you then you'll definitely have me killed,” Jeremiah replied. “Even if I were to give you advice, you wouldn't listen to me anyway.”

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.

King Zedekiah solemnly promised Jeremiah in private, “As the Lord lives, who gave us this life, I won't have you killed, and I won't hand you over to those who want to kill you.”

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

Then Jeremiah told Zedekiah, “This is what the Lord God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you hand yourself over to the officers of the king of Babylon, then you'll live. Jerusalem won't be burned down, and you and your family will survive.

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 you don't hand yourself over to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city will be given to the Babylonians. They will burn it down, and you yourself won't escape being captured.”

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.

But King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the those people of Judah who have gone over to the Babylonians, because the Babylonians might hand me over the them so they could 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.

“They won't hand you over,” Jeremiah replied. “If you obey what the Lord says by doing what I tell you, then things will go well for you and you'll 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 you refuse to hand yourself over, this is what the Lord has told 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.

All the women who are left in the palace of the king of Judah will be led out and handed over to the officials of the king of Babylon Those women will say: ‘Those good friends of yours! You were taken in by them and conquered by them. Your feet got stuck in the mid, so they abandoned you.’

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!

All your wives and children will be handed over to the Chaldeans. And you yourself will not escape, for you will be captured by the king of Babylon, and Jerusalem will be burned down.”

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.

Zedekiah warned Jeremiah, “Nobody can find out about this conversation, otherwise you'll die.

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

If the officers find out that I've talked with you, and they come and ask you, ‘Tell us what you and the king were talking about! Don't hide anything from us, or we'll kill you;’

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

then you are to tell them, ‘I was asking the king to grant my request not to return me to 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.

When all the officers came to Jeremiah wanting to know, he repeated to them exactly what the king had told him to say. So they didn't ask him anything more because no one had heard what had been said.

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.

Jeremiah remained there in the guard's courtyard until the day 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, 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.