UNROLL
Noon in a walled stone courtyard: in the paving, the round dark mouth of a cistern rimmed with worn stone, a coil of old rope beside it, the court empty.

The last days of Judah

Jeremiah 38

Who pulled you out when you were sinking?

28 verses≈ 7 min1 personBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

  1. 1The callJosiah’s thirteenth year (about 627 BC): a prophet to the nations
  2. 2–6Return to MeBroken cisterns, faithless Judah, disaster from the north
  3. 7–10The temple gateThe temple sermon, a weeping prophet, the living God
  4. 11–20Covenant and complaintThe broken covenant, the potter, Jeremiah’s confessions
  5. 21–29Shepherds and prophetsKings judged, the Branch, seventy years, the yoke, the letter
  6. 30–33The Book of ComfortRestoration, the new covenant, a field bought in a siege
  7. 34–39The last days of JudahThe scroll burned, the cistern, Jerusalem falls (586 BC)Chapter 38
  8. 40–45After the fallGedaliah at Mizpah, the flight to Egypt, a word for Baruch
  9. 46–51The nationsEgypt to Babylon: the LORD is Judge of all the earth
  10. 52Jerusalem fallsThe record of 586 BC, and a king released

Jeremiah Cast into the Cistern

Jeremiah

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.”

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The officials

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.”

Zedekiah

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

Looking down from a cistern's rim: the rock-cut shaft widens into a dim chamber, and far below in a pool of light the small figure of the prophet stands sunk to the shins in gray mud, face turned up, unhurt, the ropes hanging slack.

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.

Ebed-melech
Ebed-melech

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.”

Zedekiah

So the king commanded Ebed-melech the Cushite, “Take thirty men from here with you and pull Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.”

Ebed-melech

Question

Quick question

Ebed-melech could have hauled Jeremiah up with bare ropes. Look at 38:11–12.

What did Ebed-melech send down to pad the ropes?

Down and up

This man oughtto die38:4Into thecistern38:6: only mudSank into themud38:6Ebed-melechspeaks38:9Rags and ropes38:11–12Lifted out38:13

Whiteboard

Powerful men put the prophet in the pit. A foreign servant of the king spoke up and pulled him out.

Zedekiah
Zedekiah

Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and received him at the third entrance to the house of the LORD. “I am going to ask you something,” said the king to Jeremiah. “Do not hide anything from me.”

Jeremiah

“If I tell you,” Jeremiah replied, “you will surely put me to death. And even if I give you advice, you will not listen to me.”

Zedekiah

But King Zedekiah swore secretly to Jeremiah, “As surely as the LORD lives, who has given us this life, I will not kill you, nor will I deliver you into the hands of these men who are seeking your life.”

Jeremiah

Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what the LORD God of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you indeed surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then you will live, this city will not be burned down, and you and your household will survive. But if you do not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city will be delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans. They will burn it down, and you yourself will not escape their grasp.’”

Zedekiah

But King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Jews who have deserted to the Chaldeans, for the Chaldeans may deliver me into their hands to abuse me.”

Jeremiah

“They will not hand you over,” Jeremiah replied. “Obey the voice of the LORD in what I am telling you, that it may go well with you and you may live.

Jeremiah 38:20

Jeremiah
Close on thick gray mud at the bottom of a dry cistern in dim light: a deep sandal print sinking and filling, a slack rope end lying across the mud.

But if you refuse to surrender, this is the word that the LORD has shown me: All the women who remain in the palace of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officials of the king of Babylon, and those women will say:

‘They misled you and overcame you—

those trusted friends of yours.

Your feet sank into the mire,

and they deserted you.’

Jeremiah

All your wives and children will be brought out to the Chaldeans. And you yourself will not escape their grasp, for you will be seized by the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned down.”

Pray

Pray

Lord, when I sink in the mud, You send help, sometimes by a stranger. Make me brave like Ebed-melech, and keep me from Zedekiah’s fear of people. Amen.

Zedekiah

Then Zedekiah warned Jeremiah, “Do not let anyone know about this conversation, or you will die. If the officials hear that I have spoken with you, and they come and demand of you, ‘Tell us what you said to the king and what he said to you; do not hide it from us, or we will kill you,’ then tell them, ‘I was presenting to the king my petition that he not return me to the house of Jonathan to die there.’”

When all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him, he relayed to them the exact words the king had commanded him to say. So they said no more to him, for no one had overheard the conversation.

Night in a walled stone courtyard: the prophet seen from behind sitting against the wall by a clay lamp; beyond the wall, the orange glow of campfires ringing the hills.

And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard until the day Jerusalem was captured.

0:06

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

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Jeremiah 38

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A verse to carry with you

Obey the voice of the LORD in what I am telling you, that it may go well with you and you may live.

Jeremiah 38:20

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