Jeremiah Cast into the Cistern
Jer 38:1 Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehukal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malkijah heard what Jeremiah was telling all the people when he said,
Jer 38:2 “This is what the LORD says: ‘Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague, but whoever goes over to the Babylonians will live. They will escape with their lives; they will live.’
Jer 38:3 And this is what the LORD says: ‘This city will certainly be given into the hands of the army of the king of Babylon, who will capture it.'”
Jer 38:4 Then the officials said to the king, “This man should be put to death. He is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city, as well as all the people, by the things he is saying to them. This man is not seeking the good of these people but their ruin.”
Jer 38:5 “He is in your hands,” King Zedekiah answered. “The king can do nothing to oppose you.”
Jer 38:6 So they took Jeremiah and put him into the cistern of Malkijah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah by ropes into the cistern; it had no water in it, only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.
Jeremiah Rescued from the Cistern
Jer 38:7 But Ebed-Melek, a Cushite, an official in the royal palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. While the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate,
Jer 38:8 Ebed-Melek went out of the palace and said to him,
Jer 38:9 “My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. They have thrown him into a cistern, where he will starve to death when there is no longer any bread in the city.”
Jer 38:10 Then the king commanded Ebed-Melek the Cushite, “Take thirty men from here with you and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.”
Jer 38:11 So Ebed-Melek took the men with him and went to a room under the treasury in the palace. He took some old rags and worn-out clothes from there and let them down with ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern.
Jer 38:12 Ebed-Melek the Cushite said to Jeremiah, “Put these old rags and worn-out clothes under your arms to pad the ropes.” Jeremiah did so,
Jer 38:13 and they pulled him up with the ropes and lifted him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.
Jeremiah Warns Zedekiah Again
Jer 38:14 Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and had him brought to the third entrance to the temple of the LORD. “I am going to ask you something,” the king said to Jeremiah. “Do not hide anything from me.”
Jer 38:15 Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I give you an answer, will you not kill me? Even if I did give you counsel, you would not listen to me.”
Jer 38:16 But King Zedekiah swore this oath secretly to Jeremiah: “As surely as the LORD lives, who has given us breath, I will neither kill you nor hand you over to those who want to kill you.”
Jer 38:17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what the LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, your life will be spared and this city will not be burned down; you and your family will live.
Jer 38:18 But if you will not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, this city will be given into the hands of the Babylonians and they will burn it down; you yourself will not escape from them.'”
Jer 38:19 King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Jews who have gone over to the Babylonians, for the Babylonians may hand me over to them and they will mistreat me.”
Jer 38:20 “They will not hand you over,” Jeremiah replied. “Obey the LORD by doing what I tell you. Then it will go well with you, and your life will be spared.
Jer 38:21 But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the LORD has revealed to me:
Jer 38:22 All the women left in the palace of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officials of the king of Babylon. Those women will say to you: “‘They misled you and overcame you— those trusted friends of yours. Your feet are sunk in the mud; your friends have deserted you.’
Jer 38:23 “All your wives and children will be brought out to the Babylonians. You yourself will not escape from their hands but will be captured by the king of Babylon; and this city will be burned down.”
Jer 38:24 Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Do not let anyone know about this conversation, or you may die.
Jer 38:25 If the officials hear that I talked with you, and they come to you and say, ‘Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you; do not hide it from us or we will kill you,’
Jer 38:26 then tell them, ‘I was pleading with the king not to send me back to Jonathan’s house to die there.'”
Jer 38:27 All the officials did come to Jeremiah and question him, and he told them everything the king had ordered him to say. So they said no more to him, for no one had heard his conversation with the king.
Jer 38:28 And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard until the day Jerusalem was captured. This is how Jerusalem was taken:
1 Jeremiah, by a false suggestion, is put into the dungeon of Malchiah. 7 Ebed-melech, by suit, gets him some enlargement. 14 Upon secret conference he counselled the king by yielding to save his life. 24 By the king’s instructions he concealed the conference from the princes.
Jeremiah Cast into the Cistern
Jer 38:1 Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehukal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malkijah heard what Jeremiah was telling all the people when he said,
Shephatiah must be distinguished from the man with the same name who was the son of Ahikam, Jeremiah’s protector (see ch. 26:24; 39:14). Regarding Jucal, or Jehucal, and Pashur see chs. 21:1; 37:3. These four princes were among the foremost opponents of Jeremiah.
Jer 38:4 Then the officials said to the king, “This man should be put to death. He is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city, as well as all the people, by the things he is saying to them. This man is not seeking the good of these people but their ruin.”
Put to death. The princes refused to accept the message of Jeremiah. They looked upon the prophet as a traitor, one that would desert to the Babylonians for personal safety. Compare ch. 37:11–15. They asked for the extreme penalty against Jeremiah.
Jer 38:5 “He is in your hands,” King Zedekiah answered. “The king can do nothing to oppose you.
He is in your hand. Zedekiah, whose weak character and vacillating spirit made it impossible for him to resist, gave his reluctant consent to the demand of his determined princes.
Jer 38:6 So they took Jeremiah and put him into the cistern of Malkijah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah by ropes into the cistern; it had no water in it, only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.
Malchiah is probably the one mentioned in v. 1. Hammelech means “the king.” Malchiah probably was “the son of the king” in the sense that he was a member of the royal house (see on ch. 36:26).
No water, but mud. Either the water of the cistern had been cut off because of the siege or this may have been in October or November, when there would be little water left after the dry season. At any rate, nothing but a deposit of foul mud remained in the cistern.
Evidently the princes feared the effect upon the people if they publicly executed Jeremiah (see on vs. 4, 5). Therefore the prophet was lowered into the cistern to remain there until he died of starvation (v. 9). It is very likely that in Lam. 3:53–55 Jeremiah is referring to this time of misery and suffering.
Jeremiah Rescued from the Cistern
Jer 38:7 But Ebed-Melek, a Cushite, an official in the royal palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. While the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate,
7. Ebed-melech. Literally, “a king’s servant.”. Little is revealed about Ebed-melech, but it is plain from the narrative that he was close to the king as one of his favorites (see on v. 8), and that he used his influence fearlessly to protect Jeremiah.
Gate of Benjamin. This is usually identified with the Sheep Gate in the northeast corner of Jerusalem.
Jer 38:8 Ebed-Melek went out of the palace and said to him,
An indication of the close relationship between Ebed-melech and the king.
Jer 38:9 “My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. They have thrown him into a cistern, where he will starve to death when there is no longer any bread in the city.”
No more bread. The siege of Jerusalem was reaching its final, desperate stages.
Jer 38:10 Then the king commanded Ebed-Melek the Cushite, “Take thirty men from here with you and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.”
This seemingly large number may have been provided to meet any resistance to the prophet’s release that the princes might offer. One Hebrew MS has 3 in place of 30.
The apparent ease with which Zedekiah made a decision, only to revoke it a little later, testifies to a fundamental weakness of character. Vacillation proved to be the king’s undoing. For further comment, see on ch. 37:2.
Jer 38:11 So Ebed-Melek took the men with him and went to a room under the treasury in the palace. He took some old rags and worn-out clothes from there and let them down with ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern.
Rags. An Old English word meaning cloth patches, or rags. The thoughtfulness of Ebed-melech shines forth as a gem in this narrative. Ropes alone would have been sufficient to save Jeremiah. But Ebed-melech provided rags, so that the ropes would not cut into the flesh of the elderly prophet.
Jer 38:12 Ebed-Melek the Cushite said to Jeremiah, “Put these old rags and worn-out clothes under your arms to pad the ropes.” Jeremiah did so,
Jer 38:13 and they pulled him up with the ropes and lifted him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.
Again the vacillating character of Zedekiah stands revealed. He permitted Jeremiah to be taken out of the miry pit, but he did not dare release the prophet completely.
Jeremiah Warns Zedekiah Again
Jer 38:14 Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and had him brought to the third entrance to the temple of the LORD. “I am going to ask you something,” the king said to Jeremiah. “Do not hide anything from me.”
It is plain that the king had a reluctant respect for the prophet’s counsel, and could not altogether tear himself away from listening to it (see ch. 37:17).
Jer 38:15 Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I give you an answer, will you not kill me? Even if I did give you counsel, you would not listen to me.”
Will you not kill me? Jeremiah evidently found it difficult to keep from believing that the king had supported the severe treatment that the princes of Judah had meted out to him.
Jer 38:16 But King Zedekiah swore this oath secretly to Jeremiah: “As surely as the LORD lives, who has given us breath, I will neither kill you nor hand you over to those who want to kill you.”
Zedekiah used this strong oath to remove from the prophet any lingering doubt as to the sincerity of his purpose.
Jer 38:17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what the LORD God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, your life will be spared and this city will not be burned down; you and your family will live.
Officers. Those commanding the army that surrounded Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar was at Riblah, on the Orontes River in Coele-Syria (see ch. 39:5).
Jer 38:19 King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Jews who have gone over to the Babylonians, for the Babylonians may hand me over to them and they will mistreat me.”
It seems that several Jews had given themselves up to the Chaldeans, either in response to the messages of Jeremiah or merely because their fear prompted this action to preserve their lives.
Jer 38:22 All the women left in the palace of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officials of the king of Babylon. Those women will say to you: “‘They misled you and overcame you— those trusted friends of yours. Your feet are sunk in the mud; your friends have deserted you.’
The wives and concubines of former kings who, with Zedekiah’s own wives and concubines, would be taken by “Babylon’s princes.”
Friends. those who deceptively assured the king that all would turn out well. The words of the women were made more significant by their seeming reference to the “mire” in which Jeremiah had been placed.
Jer 38:24 Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Do not let anyone know about this conversation, or you may die.
The hopelessly weak and vacillating king was more afraid of the princes than he was of the God of heaven and His prophet.
Jer 38:26 then tell them, ‘I was pleading with the king not to send me back to Jonathan’s house to die there.'”
The weak king was afraid to have anyone know that he had had an interview with the prophet so he provided a cover-up for this interview.
Jer 38:27 All the officials did come to Jeremiah and question him, and he told them everything the king had ordered him to say. So they said no more to him, for no one had heard his conversation with the king.
Jeremiah acceded to the king’s request (see on v. 26), and told the princes what the king “had commanded” him. Jeremiah was no more wrong when he withheld from the princes some information that did not rightly belong to them, than was the prophet Samuel, who took a similar course of action under the direct command of God (see on 1 Sam. 16:2).
Jer 38:28 And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard until the day Jerusalem was captured. This is how Jerusalem was taken:
Evidently not very long after Jeremiah’s final interview with Zedekiah (vs. 14–26).