The Hebrew Prophets

Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet:

“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says that you are to tell the king of Judah, who sent you to Me: Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which has marched out to help you, will go back to its own land of Egypt.

Then the Chaldeans will return and fight against this city. They will capture it and burn it down.

This is what the LORD says: Do not deceive yourselves by saying, ‘The Chaldeans will go away for good,’ for they will not!

Indeed, if you were to strike down the entire army of the Chaldeans that is fighting against you, and only wounded men remained in their tents, they would still get up and burn this city down.”

When the Chaldean army withdrew from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s army,

Jeremiah started to leave Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin to claim his portion there among the people.

But when he reached the Gate of Benjamin, the captain of the guard, whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, seized him and said, “You are deserting to the Chaldeans!”

“That is a lie,” Jeremiah replied. “I am not deserting to the Chaldeans!” But Irijah would not listen to him; instead, he arrested Jeremiah and took him to the officials.

The officials were angry with Jeremiah, and they beat him and placed him in jail in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for it had been made into a prison.

So Jeremiah went into a cell in the dungeon and remained there a long time.

Later, King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah and received him in his palace, where he asked him privately, “Is there a word from the LORD?” “There is,” Jeremiah replied. “You will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.”

Then Jeremiah asked King Zedekiah, “How have I sinned against you or your servants or these people, that you have put me in prison?

Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, claiming, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you or this land’?

But now please listen, O my lord the king. May my petition come before you. Do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the scribe, or I will die there.”

So King Zedekiah gave orders for Jeremiah to be placed in the courtyard of the guard and given a loaf of bread daily from the street of the bakers, until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.

Now Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jucal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malchijah heard that Jeremiah had been telling all the people:

“This is what the LORD says: Whoever stays in this city will die by sword and famine and plague, but whoever surrenders to the Chaldeans will live; he will retain his life like a spoil of war, and he will live.

This is what the LORD says: This city will surely be delivered into the hands of the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.”

Then the officials said to the king, “This man ought to die, for he is discouraging the warriors who remain in this city, as well as all the people, by speaking such words to them; this man is not seeking the well-being of these people, but their ruin.”

“Here he is,” replied King Zedekiah. “He is in your hands, since the king can do nothing to stop you.”

So they took Jeremiah and dropped him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah with ropes into the cistern, which had no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.

Now Ebed-melech the Cushite, a court official in the royal palace, heard that Jeremiah had been put into the cistern. While the king was sitting at the Gate of Benjamin,

Ebed-melech went out from the king’s palace and said to the king,

“My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. They have dropped him into the cistern, where he will starve to death, for there is no more bread in the city.”