Jeremiah 37 - 41 — Legacy Standard Bible

Jeremiah Warns Against Trust in Pharaoh

37Now ^aZedekiah the son of Josiah, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had ^bmade king in the land of Judah, reigned as king in place of ^cConiah the son of Jehoiakim. ²But ^aneither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of Yahweh which He spoke through Jeremiah the prophet.

³Yet ^aKing Zedekiah sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and ^bZephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “^cPlease pray to Yahweh our God on our behalf.” ⁴Now Jeremiah was still coming in and going out among the people; they had not yet ^aput him in the prison. ⁵Meanwhile, ^aPharaoh’s military force had come out from Egypt; and the Chaldeans who had been besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them. So they ^bwithdrew from Jerusalem.

⁶Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, ⁷“Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘^aThus you are to say to the king of Judah, who sent you to Me to inquire of Me: “Behold, ^bthe military force of Pharaoh which has come out for your assistance is going to return to its own land of Egypt. ⁸“The Chaldeans will also ^areturn and fight against this city, and they will capture it and burn it with fire.”’ ⁹“Thus says Yahweh, ‘Do not ^adeceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will surely go away from us,” for they will not go. ¹⁰‘For ^aeven if you had struck down the entire military force of the Chaldeans who were fighting against you, and there were only wounded men remaining among them, each man in his tent, they would rise up and ^bburn this city with fire.’”

Jeremiah Imprisoned

¹¹Now it happened when the military force of the Chaldeans had withdrawn from Jerusalem because of the military force of Pharaoh, ¹²that Jeremiah went out from Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin in order to ^aobtain his portion of some property there among the people. ¹³Now it happened that while he was at the ^aGate of Benjamin, the master of the guard whose name was Irijah the son of Shelemiah the son of Hananiah was there; and he ^bseized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “You are ¹going over to the Chaldeans!” ¹⁴But Jeremiah said, “^aA lie! I am not ¹going over to the Chaldeans”; yet he would not listen to him. So Irijah seized Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. ¹⁵Then the officials were ^aangry at Jeremiah and struck him, and they ^bput him in jail in the house of Jonathan the scribe because they had made that house into the prison. ¹⁶For Jeremiah had come into the ¹^,^apit, that is, the vaulted cell; and Jeremiah stayed there many days.

¹⁷Then King Zedekiah sent and took him out; and in his palace the king ^asecretly asked him and said, “Is there a ^bword from Yahweh?” And Jeremiah said, “There is!” Then he said, “You will be ^cgiven into the hand of the king of Babylon!” ¹⁸Moreover, Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “^aIn what way have I sinned against you or against your servants or against this people, that you have put me in prison? ¹⁹“^aWhere then are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The ^bking of Babylon will not come against you or against this land’? ²⁰“But now, please listen, O my lord the king; please let my ^asupplication ¹come before you, and do not make me return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, that I may not die there.” ²¹Then King Zedekiah gave commandment, and they committed Jeremiah to the ^acourt of the guard and gave him a loaf of ^bbread daily from the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city had ^ccome to an end. So Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.

Jeremiah Brought Up from the Cistern

38And Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, and Jucal the ^ason of Shelemiah, and ^bPashhur the son of Malchijah heard the words that Jeremiah was speaking to all the people, saying, ²“Thus says Yahweh, ‘He who ^astays in this city will die by the ^bsword and by the famine and by the pestilence, but he who goes out to the Chaldeans will live and have his own ^clife as spoil and stay alive.’ ³“Thus says Yahweh, ‘This city will certainly be ^agiven into the hand of the military force of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.’” ⁴Then the ^aofficials said to the king, “Now let this man be put to death, inasmuch as he is ^bmaking the hands of the men of war who remain in this city as well as the hands of all the people limp, by speaking such words to them; for this man ^cis not seeking peace for this people but rather calamity.” ⁵So King Zedekiah said, “Behold, he is in your ¹hands; for the king ^acan do nothing against you.” ⁶Then they took Jeremiah and cast him into the ¹^,^acistern of Malchijah the king’s son, which was in the court of the guard; and they let Jeremiah down with ropes. Now in the cistern there was no water but only ^bmire, and Jeremiah sank into the mire. ⁷But ^aEbed-melech the Ethiopian, ¹a ^beunuch, while he was in the king’s palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. Now the king was sitting in the ^cGate of Benjamin; ⁸and Ebed-melech went out from the king’s house and spoke to the king, saying, ⁹“My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet whom they have cast into the cistern; and he ¹will die right where he is because of the famine, for there is ^ano more bread in the city.” ¹⁰Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, “Take in your hand thirty men from here and bring up Jeremiah the prophet from the cistern before he dies.” ¹¹So Ebed-melech took the men in his hand and went into the king’s palace to a place beneath the storeroom and took from there worn-out clothes and worn-out rags and let them down by ropes into the cistern to Jeremiah. ¹²Then Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, “Now put these worn-out clothes and rags under your armpits under the ropes”; and Jeremiah did so. ¹³So they pulled Jeremiah up with the ropes and brought him up from the cistern, and Jeremiah stayed in the ^acourt of the guard.

Zedekiah Sends for Jeremiah

¹⁴Then King Zedekiah ^asent and ¹had Jeremiah the prophet brought to him at the third entrance that is in the house of Yahweh; and the king said to Jeremiah, “I am going to ^bask you something; do not hide anything from me.” ¹⁵Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “^aIf I tell you, will you not certainly put me to death? Besides, if I give you counsel, you will not listen to me.” ¹⁶But King Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah in ^asecret saying, “As Yahweh lives, who made this ¹^,^blife for us, surely I will not put you to death, nor will I give you over to the hand of ^cthese men who are seeking your ²life.”

¹⁷Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “Thus says Yahweh ^aGod of hosts, the ^bGod of Israel, ‘If you will indeed ^cgo out to the ¹officers of the king of Babylon, then ²you will live, this city will not be burned with fire, and you and your household will live. ¹⁸‘But if you will ^anot go out to the ¹officers of the king of Babylon, then this city ^bwill be given over to the hand of the Chaldeans; and they will burn it with fire, and ^cyou yourself will not escape from their hand.’” ¹⁹Then King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I ^aam anxious because of the Jews who have ¹^,^bgone over to the Chaldeans, lest they give me over into their hand and they ^cdeal severely with me.” ²⁰But Jeremiah said, “They will not give you over. Please ^alisten to the voice of Yahweh in what I am saying to you, that it may go ^bwell with you and ¹^,^cyou may live. ²¹“But if you keep refusing to go out, this is the word which Yahweh has shown me: ²²‘And behold, all of the ^awomen who have remained in the house of the king of Judah are going to be brought out to the ¹officers of the king of Babylon; and behold, those women will say, “²Your close friendsHave misled and overpowered you;While your feet were sunk in the mud,They turned back.”

²³‘And they will also bring out all your wives and your ^asons to the Chaldeans, and ^byou yourself will not escape from their hand, but will be seized by the hand of the king of Babylon, and ^cthis city will be burned with fire.’”

²⁴Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Let no man know about these words and you will not die. ²⁵“But if the ^aofficials hear that I have talked with you and come to you and say to you, ‘Tell us now what you said to the king and what the king said to you; do not hide it from us, and we will not put you to death,’ ²⁶then you are to say to them, ‘I was ^apresenting my petition before the king, not to make me return to the house of Jonathan to die there.’” ²⁷Then all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him. So he told them in accordance with all these words which the king had commanded; and they ceased speaking with him since the ¹conversation had not been overheard. ²⁸So Jeremiah ^astayed in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was captured.

The Walls of Jerusalem Torn Down

39¹Now when Jerusalem was captured ²^,^ain the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his military force came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it; ²in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the city was ^abreached. ³Then all the ^aofficials of the king of Babylon came in and sat down at the ^bMiddle Gate: Nergal-sar-ezer, Samgar-nebu, Sar-sekim the ¹Rab-saris, Nergal-sar-ezer the ²Rab-mag, and all the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon. ⁴Now it happened that when Zedekiah the king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, they ^afled and went out of the city at night by way of the king’s garden through the gate ^bbetween the two walls; and he went out toward the ¹Arabah. ⁵But the military force of the ^aChaldeans pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the ¹^,^bplains of Jericho; and they took him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at ^cRiblah in the land of Hamath, and he spoke judgment on him. ⁶Then the ^aking of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah ^bbefore his eyes at Riblah; the king of Babylon also slaughtered all the ^cnobles of Judah. ⁷He then ^ablinded Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him in ^bfetters of bronze to bring him to ^cBabylon. ⁸The Chaldeans also ^aburned with fire the house of the king and the houses of the people, and they ^btore down the walls of Jerusalem. ⁹And as for the rest of the people who remained in the city, the ¹^,^adefectors who had gone over to him and ^bthe rest of the people who remained, ^cNebuzaradan the ^dcaptain of the bodyguard took them away into exile in Babylon. ¹⁰But some of the ^apoorest people who had nothing, ^bNebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had them remain in the land of Judah and gave them vineyards and fields ¹at that time.

Jeremiah Delivered

¹¹Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave a command about ^aJeremiah through Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard, saying, ¹²“Take him and set your eyes to look after him and ^ado nothing harmful to him, but rather deal with him just as he speaks to you.” ¹³So Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard sent word, along with Nebushazban the ¹Rab-saris and Nergal-sar-ezer the ²Rab-mag and all the leading officers of the king of Babylon; ¹⁴they even sent and ^atook Jeremiah out of the court of the guard and gave him over to ^bGedaliah, the son of ^cAhikam, the son of Shaphan, to take him home. So he stayed among the people.

¹⁵Now the word of Yahweh had come to Jeremiah while he was ^aconfined in the court of the guard, saying, ¹⁶“Go and speak to ^aEbed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold, I am about to bring My words on this city ^bfor ¹calamity and not for ²prosperity; and they will ^ctake place before you on that day. ¹⁷“But I will ^adeliver you on that day,” declares Yahweh, “and you will not be given into the hand of the men of whom you are terrified. ¹⁸“For I will certainly provide you escape, and you will not fall by the sword; but you will have your own ^alife as spoil because you have ^btrusted in Me,” declares Yahweh.’”

Jeremiah Stays in Judah

40The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh after ^aNebuzaradan captain of the bodyguard had released him from ^bRamah, when he had taken him bound in ^cchains among all the exiles of Jerusalem and Judah who were being exiled to Babylon. ²And the captain of the bodyguard had taken Jeremiah and said to him, “^aYahweh your God promised this calamity against this place; ³and Yahweh has brought it on and done just as He promised. Because you people ^asinned against Yahweh and did not listen to His voice, therefore this thing has happened to you. ⁴“So now, behold, I am ^afreeing you today from the chains which are on your hands. If it is good in your eyes to come with me to Babylon, come along, and I will set my eyes to look after you; but if it ¹is displeasing in your eyes to come with me to Babylon, ²never mind. Look, the ^bwhole land is before you; go wherever it seems good and right in your eyes to go.” ⁵But as ¹Jeremiah had not yet set out to return, ²he said, “Return then to ^aGedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has ^bappointed over the cities of Judah, and stay with him among the people; or else go anywhere that is right in your eyes to go.” So the captain of the bodyguard gave him a ^cration and a ^dgift and let him go. ⁶Then Jeremiah went to ^aMizpah to ^bGedaliah the son of Ahikam and stayed with him among the people who remained in the land.

⁷^aThen all the ¹commanders of the military forces that were in the field, they and their men, heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam over the land and that he had appointed him over the men, women, little ones, and those of the ^bpoorest of the land who had not been exiled to Babylon. ⁸So they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah, along with ^aIshmael the son of Nethaniah, and ^bJohanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, and Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth, and the sons of Ephai the ^cNetophathite, and ^dJezaniah the son of the ^eMaacathite, both they and their men. ⁹Then Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, ^aswore to them and to their men, saying, “^bDo not be afraid of serving the Chaldeans; stay in the land and serve the king of Babylon, that it may go well with you. ¹⁰“Now as for me, behold, I am going to stay at Mizpah to ^astand for you before the Chaldeans who come to us; but as for you, ^bgather in wine and ^csummer fruit and oil and put them in your storage vessels and stay in your cities that you have seized.” ¹¹And also all the Jews, who were in ^aMoab and among the sons of ^bAmmon and in ^cEdom and who were in all the other lands, heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant for Judah and that he had appointed over them Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan. ¹²Then all the Jews ^areturned from all the places to which they had been banished and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and gathered in wine and summer fruit in great abundance.

¹³Now Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the military forces that were in the field came to Gedaliah at Mizpah ¹⁴and said to him, “Do you indeed know that Baalis the king of the sons of ^aAmmon has sent Ishmael the son of Nethaniah to strike down your life?” But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam did not believe them. ¹⁵Then Johanan the son of Kareah spoke secretly to Gedaliah in Mizpah, saying, “^aLet me go and strike down Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and not a man will know! Why should he ^bstrike down your life, so that all the Jews who are gathered to you would be scattered and the ^cremnant of Judah would perish?” ¹⁶But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said to Johanan the son of Kareah, “^aDo not do this thing, for you are telling a lie about Ishmael.”

Ishmael Strikes Down Gedaliah

41^aNow it happened in the seventh month, that ^bIshmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal seed and one of the chief officers of the king, along with ten men, came to Mizpah to ^cGedaliah the son of Ahikam. And they ^dwere eating bread together there in Mizpah. ²Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him arose and ^astruck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword and ^bput to death the one ^cwhom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land. ³Ishmael also struck down all the Jews who were with him, that is with Gedaliah at Mizpah, as well as the Chaldeans who were found there, the men of war.

⁴Now it happened on the ¹next day after putting Gedaliah to death, when no one knew about it, ⁵that eighty men ^acame from ^bShechem, from ^cShiloh, and from ^dSamaria with ^etheir beards shaved off and their clothes torn and ¹their bodies ^fgashed, having grain offerings and frankincense in their hands to bring to the house of Yahweh. ⁶Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, ^aweeping as he went; and it happened that as he encountered them, he said to them, “Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam!” ⁷But it happened that as soon as they came inside the city, Ishmael the son of Nethaniah and the men that were with him ^aslaughtered them and cast them into the cistern. ⁸But ten men who were found among them said to Ishmael, “Do not put us to death; for we have ^astores of wheat, barley, oil, and honey hidden in the field.” So he refrained and did not put them to death along with their ¹companions.

⁹Now as for the cistern where Ishmael had cast all the corpses of the men whom he had struck down ¹because of Gedaliah, it was the ^aone that King Asa had made on ^baccount of Baasha, king of Israel; Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with the slain. ¹⁰Then Ishmael took captive all the ^aremnant of the people who were in Mizpah, the ^bking’s daughters and all the people who remained in Mizpah, over whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard had appointed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam; thus Ishmael the son of Nethaniah took them captive and went to cross over to the sons of ^cAmmon.

Johanan Rescues the People

¹¹But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the ^acommanders of the military forces that were with him heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done. ¹²So they took all the men and went to ^afight with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and they found him by the ^bgreat ¹pool that is in Gibeon. ¹³Now it happened as soon as all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the military forces that were with him, they were glad. ¹⁴So all the people whom Ishmael had taken captive from Mizpah turned around and returned and went to Johanan the son of Kareah. ¹⁵But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah ^aescaped from Johanan with eight men and went to the sons of Ammon. ¹⁶Then Johanan the son of Kareah and all the commanders of the military forces that were with him took from Mizpah ^aall the remnant of the people whom he had returned from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, after he had struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, that is, the mighty men who were men of war, the women, the little ones, and the eunuchs, whom he had returned from Gibeon. ¹⁷And they went and stayed in ¹^,^aGeruth Chimham, which is beside Bethlehem, in order to ^bproceed into Egypt ¹⁸because of the Chaldeans; for they were ^aafraid of them, since Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom ^bthe king of Babylon had appointed over the land.