Jeremiah 37

• 1. Zedekiah son of Josiah succeeded Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim as the king of Judah. He was appointed by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
• 2. But neither King Zedekiah nor his officials nor the people who were left in the land listened to what the LORD said through Jeremiah.
• 3. Nevertheless, King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the priest, son of Maaseiah, to ask Jeremiah, "Please pray to the LORD our God for us."
• 4. Jeremiah had not yet been imprisoned, so he could come and go as he pleased.
• 5. At this time the army of Pharaoh Hophra of Egypt appeared at the southern border of Judah. When the Babylonian army heard about it, they withdrew from their siege of Jerusalem.
• 6. Then the LORD gave this message to Jeremiah:
• 7. "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to ask me what is going to happen, that Pharaoh's army is about to return to Egypt, though he came here to help you.
• 8. Then the Babylonians will come back and capture this city and burn it to the ground.
• 9. The LORD says: Do not fool yourselves that the Babylonians are gone for good. They aren't!
• 10. Even if you were to destroy the entire Babylonian army, leaving only a handful of wounded survivors, they would still stagger from their tents and burn this city to the ground!"
• 11. When the Babylonian army left Jerusalem because of Pharaoh's approaching army,
• 12. Jeremiah started to leave the city on his way to the land of Benjamin, to see the property he had bought.
• 13. But as he was walking through the Benjamin Gate, a sentry arrested him and said, "You are defecting to the Babylonians!" The sentry making the arrest was Irijah son of Shelemiah and grandson of Hananiah.
• 14. "That's not true!" Jeremiah protested. "I had no intention of doing any such thing." But Irijah wouldn't listen, and he took Jeremiah before the officials.
• 15. They were furious with Jeremiah and had him flogged and imprisoned in the house of Jonathan the secretary. Jonathan's house had been converted into a prison.
• 16. Jeremiah was put into a dungeon cell, where he remained for many days.
• 17. Later King Zedekiah secretly requested that Jeremiah come to the palace, where the king asked him, "Do you have any messages from the LORD?Yes, I do!" said Jeremiah. "You will be defeated by the king of Babylon."
• 18. Then Jeremiah asked the king, "What crime have I committed? What have I done against you, your officials, or the people that I should be imprisoned like this?
• 19. Where are your prophets now who told you the king of Babylon would not attack you?
• 20. Listen, my lord the king, I beg you. Don't send me back to the dungeon in the house of Jonathan the secretary, for I will die there."
• 21. So King Zedekiah commanded that Jeremiah not be returned to the dungeon. Instead, he was imprisoned in the courtyard of the guard in the royal palace. The king also commanded that Jeremiah be given a loaf of fresh bread every day as long as there was any left in the city. So Jeremiah was put in the palace prison.

Jeremiah 38

• 1. Now Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehucal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malkijah heard what Jeremiah had been telling the people. He was saying,
• 2. "This is what the LORD says: Everyone who stays in Jerusalem will die from war, famine, or disease, but those who surrender to the Babylonians will live.
• 3. The LORD also says: The city of Jerusalem will surely be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon, who will capture it."
• 4. So these officials went to the king and said, "Sir, this man must die! That kind of talk will undermine the morale of the few fighting men we have left, as well as that of all the people, too. This man is a traitor!"
• 5. So King Zedekiah agreed. "All right," he said. "Do as you like. I will do nothing to stop you."
• 6. So the officials took Jeremiah from his cell and lowered him by ropes into an empty cistern in the prison yard. It belonged to Malkijah, a member of the royal family. There was no water in the cistern, but there was a thick layer of mud at the bottom, and Jeremiah sank down into it.
• 7. But Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, an important palace official, heard that Jeremiah was in the cistern. At that time the king was holding court at the Benjamin Gate,
• 8. so Ebed-melech rushed from the palace to speak with him.
• 9. "My lord the king," he said, "these men have done a very evil thing in putting Jeremiah the prophet into the cistern. He will soon die of hunger, for almost all the bread in the city is gone."
• 10. So the king told Ebed-melech, "Take along thirty of my men, and pull Jeremiah out of the cistern before he dies."
• 11. So Ebed-melech took the men with him and went to a room in the palace beneath the treasury, where he found some old rags and discarded clothing. He carried these to the cistern and lowered them to Jeremiah on a rope.
• 12. Ebed-melech called down to Jeremiah, "Put these rags under your armpits to protect you from the ropes." Then when Jeremiah was ready,
• 13. they pulled him out. So Jeremiah was returned to the courtyard of the guard--the palace prison--where he remained.
• 14. One day King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah to meet him at the third entrance of the LORD's Temple. "I want to ask you something," the king said. "And don't try to hide the truth."
• 15. Jeremiah said, "If I tell you the truth, you will kill me. And if I give you advice, you won't listen to me anyway."
• 16. So King Zedekiah secretly promised him, "As surely as the LORD our Creator lives, I will not kill you or hand you over to the men who want you dead."
• 17. Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, "The LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: If you surrender to Babylon, you and your family will live, and the city will not be burned.
• 18. But if you refuse to surrender, you will not escape! This city will be handed over to the Babylonians, and they will burn it to the ground."
• 19. "But I am afraid to surrender," the king said, "for the Babylonians will hand me over to the Judeans who have defected to them. And who knows what they will do to me?"
• 20. Jeremiah replied, "You won't be handed over to them if you choose to obey the LORD. Your life will be spared, and all will go well for you.
• 21. But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the LORD has revealed to me:
• 22. All the women left in your palace will be brought out and given to the officers of the Babylonian army. Then the women will taunt you, saying, `What fine friends you have! They have betrayed and misled you. When your feet sank in the mud, they left you to your fate!'
• 23. All your wives and children will be led out to the Babylonians, and you will not escape. You will be seized by the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned."
• 24. Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, "Don't tell anyone you told me this, or you will die!
• 25. My officials may hear that I spoke to you. Then they may say to you, `Tell us what you and the king were talking about. If you don't tell us, we will kill you.'
• 26. If this happens, just tell them you begged me not to send you back to Jonathan's dungeon, for fear you would die there."
• 27. Sure enough, it wasn't long before the king's officials came to Jeremiah and asked him why the king had called for him. But Jeremiah followed the king's instructions, and they left without finding out the truth. No one had overheard the conversation between Jeremiah and the king.
• 28. And Jeremiah remained a prisoner in the courtyard of the guard until the day Jerusalem was captured.

Jeremiah 39

• 1. It was in January during the ninth year of King Zedekiah's reign that King Nebuchadnezzar and his army returned to besiege Jerusalem.
• 2. Two and a half years later, on July 18, the Babylonians broke through the wall, and the city fell.
• 3. All the officers of the Babylonian army came in and sat in triumph at the Middle Gate: Nergal-sharezer of Samgar, and Nebo-sarsekim, a chief officer, and Nergal-sharezer, the king's adviser, and many others.
• 4. King Zedekiah and his royal guard saw the Babylonians in the city gate, so they fled when the darkness of night arrived. They went out through a gate between the two walls behind the king's garden and headed toward the Jordan Valley.
• 5. But the Babylonians chased the king and caught him on the plains of Jericho. They took him to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, who was at Riblah in the land of Hamath. There the king of Babylon pronounced judgment upon Zedekiah.
• 6. He made Zedekiah watch as they killed his sons and all the nobles of Judah.
• 7. Then he gouged out Zedekiah's eyes, bound him in chains, and sent him away to exile in Babylon.
• 8. Meanwhile, the Babylonians burned Jerusalem, including the palace, and tore down the walls of the city.
• 9. Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, sent to Babylon the remnant of the population as well as those who had defected to him.
• 10. But Nebuzaradan left a few of the poorest people in Judah, and he assigned them fields and vineyards to care for.
• 11. King Nebuchadnezzar had told Nebuzaradan to find Jeremiah.
• 12. "See that he isn't hurt," he had said. "Look after him well, and give him anything he wants."
• 13. So Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, and Nebushazban, a chief officer, and Nergal-sharezer, the king's adviser, and the other officers of Babylon's king
• 14. sent messengers to bring Jeremiah out of the prison. They put him under the care of Gedaliah son of Ahikam and grandson of Shaphan, who was to take him back to his home. So Jeremiah stayed in Judah among his own people.
• 15. The LORD had given the following message to Jeremiah while he was still in prison:
• 16. "Say to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, `The LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I will do to this city everything I have threatened. I will send disaster, not prosperity. You will see its destruction,
• 17. but I will rescue you from those you fear so much.
• 18. Because you trusted me, I will preserve your life and keep you safe. I, the LORD, have spoken!'"

New Living Translation: 271 of 324 days.