Jeremiah 38:1-6

Jeremiah Brought Up from the Cistern

And 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.’” 4 Then 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.” 5 So King Zedekiah said, “Behold, he is in your ¹hands; for the king ^acan do nothing against you.” 6 Then 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.