Study Desk

Meanwhile, Pharaoh's army had set out from Egypt; and when the Chaldeans who had been besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them, they withdrew from Jerusalem.

"Then the Chaldeans will return and fight against this city, and they will capture it and burn it with fire."'

'For even if you had defeated the entire army of Chaldeans who were fighting against you, and there were only wounded men left among them, each man in his tent, they would rise up and burn this city with fire.'"

Then the officials were angry at Jeremiah and they beat him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for they had made it into the prison.

Then King Zedekiah gave a command, and they placed Jeremiah in custody in the courtyard of the guardhouse, and gave him a loaf of bread daily from the bakers' street, until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guardhouse.

So they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Malchijah the king's son, which was in the courtyard of the guardhouse; and they let Jeremiah down with ropes. Now in the cistern there was no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.

"My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet whom they have thrown into the cistern; and he will die right where he is because of the famine, for there is no more bread in the city."

So they pulled Jeremiah out with the ropes and lifted him out of the cistern, and Jeremiah stayed in the courtyard of the guardhouse.

'But if you do not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city will be handed over to the Chaldeans; and they will burn it with fire, and you yourself will not escape from their hands.'"

Then King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, "I am in fear of the Jews who have deserted to the Chaldeans, for they may hand me over to them, and they will abuse me."

But Jeremiah said, "They will not turn you over. Please obey the LORD in what I am saying to you, so that it may go well for you and you may live.

'Behold, all of the women who have been left in the palace of the king of Judah are going to be brought out to the officers of the king of Babylon; and those women will say, "Your close friends Have misled and overpowered you; While your feet were sunk in the mire, They turned back."

'They are also going to bring out all your wives and your sons to the Chaldeans, and you yourself will not escape from their hand, but will be seized by the hand of the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned with fire.'"

Then all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him. So he reported to them in accordance with all these words which the king had commanded; and they stopped speaking with him, since the conversation had not been overheard.

And when Zedekiah the king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, they fled and left the city at night by way of the king's garden through the gate between the two walls; and he went out toward the Arabah.

But the army of the Chaldeans pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and they took him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him.

The Chaldeans also burned the king's palace and the houses of the people with fire, and they tore down the walls of Jerusalem.

they even sent word and took Jeremiah out of the courtyard of the guardhouse and entrusted him to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to take him home. So he stayed among the people.

"Go and speak to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying, 'This is what the LORD of armies, the God of Israel says: "Behold, I am going to bring My words on this city for disaster and not for prosperity; and they will take place before you on that day.

Now all the commanders of the 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 put him in charge of the men, women, and children, those of the poorest of the land who had not been exiled to Babylon.