1 Shephatiah the son of Mattan, Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, Jucal the son of Shelemiah and Pashhur the son of Malchiah heard the words Jeremiah was speaking to all the people:
2 "Thus says the LORD: Whoever stays in this city will die by sword, by famine and by pestilence, but whoever goes out to the Chaldeans will live; he will have his life as a prize of war and will live.
3 Thus says the LORD: This city will certainly be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon, and he will take it."
4 And the officials said to the king, "This man must be put to death, because he is weakening the hands of the fighting men left in this city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking to them words like these. For this man is not seeking peace for this people, but evil."
5 King Zedekiah said, "Look, he is in your hand; for the king can do nothing against you."
6 So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern of Malchiah the king's son, which was in the court of the guard, lowering Jeremiah with ropes. In the cistern there was no water, only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.
7 Ebed-melech the Cushite, a eunuch in the king's house, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern; the king was then sitting in the Gate of Benjamin.
8 Ebed-melech went out of the king's house and spoke to the king:
9 "My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all they have done to the prophet Jeremiah, whom they have cast into the cistern; he will die where he lies because of the famine, for there is no more bread in the city."
10 The king commanded Ebed-melech the Cushite, "Take thirty men from here with you and bring the prophet Jeremiah up from the cistern before he dies."
11 Ebed-melech took the men with him and went into the king's house, to the place beneath the storeroom, and took from there old scraps of cloth and old rags, and let them down by ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern.
12 Ebed-melech the Cushite said to Jeremiah, "Put these old scraps and rags under your armpits, under the ropes." Jeremiah did so.
13 And they pulled Jeremiah up with the ropes and brought him up out of the cistern; and Jeremiah stayed in the court of the guard.
14 King Zedekiah sent and took the prophet Jeremiah to himself at the third entrance in the house of the LORD, and the king said to Jeremiah, "I am asking you a thing; hide nothing from me."
15 Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, "If I tell you, will you not certainly kill me? And if I advise you, you will not listen to me."
16 But King Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah in secret, "As the LORD lives, who made for us this soul, I will not kill you, nor will I give you into the hand of these men who are seeking your life."
17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, "Thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: If you do indeed go out to the officials of the king of Babylon, your soul will live; this city will not be burned with fire, and you and your household will live.
18 But if you do not go out to the officials of the king of Babylon, this city will be handed over to the Chaldeans, they will burn it with fire, and you will not get away from their hand."
19 King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, "I am afraid of the Jews who have fallen away to the Chaldeans, that they may hand me over to them and they will treat me harshly."
20 Jeremiah said, "They will not hand you over. Listen, please, to the voice of the LORD in what I am telling you, so that it may go well with you and your soul may live.
21 But if you refuse to go out, this is the word the LORD has shown me:
22 See, all the women left in the house of the king of Judah are being brought out to the officials of the king of Babylon, and they are saying, 'Your trusted friends have deceived you and overcome you; your feet have sunk in the mud, and they have turned back.'
23 All your wives and your sons they will bring out to the Chaldeans, and you will not get away from their hand; you will be seized by the hand of the king of Babylon, and you will burn this city with fire."
24 Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, "No one must know of these words, and you will not die.
25 If the officials hear that I have spoken with you, and they come to you and say, 'Tell us what you said to the king; hide nothing from us, and we will not kill you; and what did the king say to you?'
26 then say to them, 'I was laying my supplication before the king not to send me back to the house of Jonathan to die there.'"
27 All the officials did come to Jeremiah and ask him, and he told them just what the king had commanded. So they left off speaking with him, for the matter had not been heard.
28 So Jeremiah stayed in the court of the guard until the day Jerusalem was taken. And it came about when Jerusalem was captured,