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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Jeremiah 38 NIV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/jeremiah/38.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/jeremiah/38-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NIV</a> > Jeremiah 38</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../jeremiah/37.htm" title="Jeremiah 37">◄</a> Jeremiah 38 <a href="../jeremiah/39.htm" title="Jeremiah 39">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New International Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/niv/esv/jeremiah/38.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><p class="sectionhead">Jeremiah Thrown Into a Cistern</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehukal <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Hebrew Jukal, a variant of Jehukal">a</a></sup></span> son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malkijah heard what Jeremiah was telling all the people when he said, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>“This is what the <span class="name">Lord</span> says: ‘Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague, but whoever goes over to the Babylonians <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Or Chaldeans; also in verses 18, 19 and 23">b</a></sup></span> will live. They will escape with their lives; they will live.’ <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>And this is what the <span class="name">Lord</span> says: ‘This city will certainly be given into the hands of the army of the king of Babylon, who will capture it.’ ”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>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.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>“He is in your hands,” King Zedekiah answered. “The king can do nothing to oppose you.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>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.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>But Ebed-Melek, a Cushite, <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Probably from the upper Nile region">c</a></sup></span> an official <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Or a eunuch">d</a></sup></span> in the royal palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. While the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>Ebed-Melek went out of the palace and said to him, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>“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.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>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.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>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. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>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, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>and they pulled him up with the ropes and lifted him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.</p> <p class="sectionhead">Zedekiah Questions Jeremiah Again</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and had him brought to the third entrance to the temple of the <span class="name">Lord</span>. “I am going to ask you something,” the king said to Jeremiah. “Do not hide anything from me.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>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.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>But King Zedekiah swore this oath secretly to Jeremiah: “As surely as the <span class="name">Lord</span> lives, who has given us breath, I will neither kill you nor hand you over to those who want to kill you.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what the <span class="name">Lord</span> 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. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>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.’ ”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>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.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>“They will not hand you over,” Jeremiah replied. “Obey the <span class="name">Lord</span> by doing what I tell you. Then it will go well with you, and your life will be spared. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the <span class="name">Lord</span> has revealed to me: <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span>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:</p><div class="stanza"><p class="line1">“ ‘They misled you and overcame you—</p><p class="line2">those trusted friends of yours.</p><p class="line1">Your feet are sunk in the mud;</p><p class="line2">your friends have deserted you.’</p></div> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span>“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 <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Or and you will cause this city to">e</a></sup></span> be burned down.”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-24.htm"><b>24</b></a></span>Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Do not let anyone know about this conversation, or you may die. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-25.htm"><b>25</b></a></span>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,’ <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-26.htm"><b>26</b></a></span>then tell them, ‘I was pleading with the king not to send me back to Jonathan’s house to die there.’ ”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-27.htm"><b>27</b></a></span>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.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/38-28.htm"><b>28</b></a></span>And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard until the day Jerusalem was captured.</p><p class="sectionhead">The Fall of Jerusalem</p><p class="reg">This is how Jerusalem was taken:</p><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><A name="footnotes"></a><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">a</span> <span class="fnverse">1</span> <span class="footnotebot">Hebrew <i>Jukal,</i> a variant of <i>Jehukal</i></span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">b</span> <span class="fnverse">2</span> <span class="footnotebot">Or <i>Chaldeans</i>; also in verses 18, 19 and 23</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">c</span> <span class="fnverse">7</span> <span class="footnotebot">Probably from the upper Nile region</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">d</span> <span class="fnverse">7</span> <span class="footnotebot">Or <i>a eunuch</i></span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">e</span> <span class="fnverse">23</span> <span class="footnotebot">Or <i>and you will cause this city to</i></span><br><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center"><p class="ntext"><a href="http://niv.scripturetext.com/version.htm">New International Version</a> (NIV)</p><p class="ntext2">Holy Bible, New International Version&reg, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by <a href="http://biblica.com">Biblica, Inc.</a>® Used by permission. 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