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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//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 CEV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /></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="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">CEV</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">Contemporary English Version</div><div class="chap"><h3 class="s1">Jeremiah Is Held Prisoner in a Dry Well</h3><p class="par"><span class="v24_38_1"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.1" class="v24_38_1">1</span>One day, Shephatiah, Gedaliah, Jehucal,<a href="#fn" id="link_Jer.38.1!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> and Pashhur<a href="#fn" id="link_Jer.38.1!f.2" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> heard me tell the people of Judah </span><span class="v24_38_2"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.2-Jer.38.3" class="v24_38_2">2-3</span>that the <span class="nd">Lord</span> had said, “If you stay here in Jerusalem, you will die in battle or from disease or hunger, and the Babylonian army will capture the city anyway. But if you surrender to the Babylonians, they will let you live.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v24_38_4"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.4" class="v24_38_4">4</span>So the four of them went to the king and said, “You should put Jeremiah to death, because he is making the soldiers and everyone else lose hope. He isn't trying to help our people; he's trying to harm them.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v24_38_5"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.5" class="v24_38_5">5</span>Zedekiah replied, “Do what you want with him. I can't stop you.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v24_38_6"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.6" class="v24_38_6">6</span>Then they took me back to the courtyard of the palace guards and let me down with ropes into the well that belonged to Malchiah, the king's son. There was no water in the well, but I sank down in the mud.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v24_38_7"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.7-Jer.38.8" class="v24_38_7">7-8</span>Ebedmelech from Ethiopia<a href="#fn" id="link_Jer.38.7-Jer.38.8!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> was an official at the palace, and he heard what they had done to me. So he went to speak with King Zedekiah, who was holding court at Benjamin Gate. </span><span class="v24_38_9"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.9" class="v24_38_9">9</span>Ebedmelech said, “Your Majesty, Jeremiah is a prophet, and those men were wrong to throw him into a well. And when Jerusalem runs out of food, Jeremiah will starve to death down there.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v24_38_10"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.10" class="v24_38_10">10</span>Zedekiah answered, “Take 30<a href="#fn" id="link_Jer.38.10!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> of my soldiers and pull Jeremiah out before he dies.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v24_38_11"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.11" class="v24_38_11">11</span>Ebedmelech and the soldiers went to the palace and got some rags from the room under the treasury. He used ropes to lower them into the well. </span><span class="v24_38_12"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.12" class="v24_38_12">12</span>Then he said, “Put these rags under your arms so the ropes won't hurt you.” After I did, </span><span class="v24_38_13"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.13" class="v24_38_13">13</span>the men pulled me out. And from then on, I was kept in the courtyard of the palace guards.</span></p><h3 class="s1">King Zedekiah Questions Jeremiah</h3><p class="par"><span class="v24_38_14"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.14" class="v24_38_14">14</span>King Zedekiah<a href="#fn" id="link_Jer.38.14!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> had me brought to his private entrance<a href="#fn" id="link_Jer.38.14!f.2" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> to the temple, and he said, “I'm going to ask you something, and I want to know the truth.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v24_38_15"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.15" class="v24_38_15">15</span>“Why?” I replied. “You won't listen, and you might even have me killed!”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v24_38_16"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.16" class="v24_38_16">16</span>He said, “I swear in the name of the living <span class="nd">Lord</span> our Creator that I won't have you killed. No one else can hear what we say, and I won't let anyone kill you.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v24_38_17"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.17" class="v24_38_17">17</span>Then I told him that the <span class="nd">Lord</span> had said: “Zedekiah, I am the <span class="nd">Lord</span> God All-Powerful, the God of Israel. I promise that if you surrender to King Nebuchadnezzar's<a href="#fn" id="link_Jer.38.17!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> officers, you and your family won't be killed, and Jerusalem won't be burned down. </span><span class="v24_38_18"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.18" class="v24_38_18">18</span>But if you don't surrender, I will let the Babylonian army capture Jerusalem and burn it down, and you will be taken prisoner.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v24_38_19"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.19" class="v24_38_19">19</span>Zedekiah answered, “I can't surrender to the Babylonians. I'm too afraid of the people of Judah who have already joined them. The Babylonians might hand me over to them, and they would torture me.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v24_38_20"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.20" class="v24_38_20">20</span>I said, “If you will just obey the <span class="nd">Lord</span>, the Babylonians won't hand you over to those Jews. You will be allowed to live, and all will go well for you. </span><span class="v24_38_21"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.21" class="v24_38_21">21</span>But the <span class="nd">Lord</span> has shown me that if you refuse to obey, </span><span class="v24_38_22"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.22" class="v24_38_22">22</span>then the women of your palace will be taken prisoner by Nebuchadnezzar's officials. And those women will say to you:</span></p><p class="b"></p><p class="q1"><span class="v24_38_22">Friends you trusted led you astray.</span></p><p class="q2"><span class="v24_38_22">Now you're trapped in mud,</span></p><p class="q1"><span class="v24_38_22">and those friends you trusted</span></p><p class="q2"><span class="v24_38_22">have all turned away.</span></p><p class="b"></p><p class="m"><span class="v24_38_23"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.23" class="v24_38_23">23</span>The Babylonian army will take your wives and children captive, you will be taken as a prisoner to the King of Babylonia, and Jerusalem will be burned down.”<a href="#fn" id="link_Jer.38.23!f.1" class="notelink f-link"><span>+</span></a> </span></p><p class="par"><span class="v24_38_24"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.24" class="v24_38_24">24</span>Zedekiah said, “Jeremiah, if you tell anyone what we have talked about, you might lose your life. </span><span class="v24_38_25"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.25" class="v24_38_25">25</span>And I'm sure that if my officials hear about our meeting, they will ask you what we said to each other. They might even threaten to kill you if you don't tell them. </span><span class="v24_38_26"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.26" class="v24_38_26">26</span>So if they question you, tell them you were begging me not to send you back to the prison at Jonathan's house, because going back there would kill you.”</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v24_38_27"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.27" class="v24_38_27">27</span>The officials did come and question me about my meeting with the king, and I told them exactly what he had ordered me to say. They never spoke to me about the meeting again, since no one had heard us talking.</span></p><p class="par"><span class="v24_38_28"><span class="reftext" id="Jer.38.28" class="v24_38_28">28</span><a href="#fn" id="link_Jer.38.28!x.1" class="notelink x-link"><span></span></a> I was held in the courtyard of the palace guards until the day Jerusalem was captured.</span></p> <a name="fn"></a><br /><br /><br /><b>Footnotes:<br /><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">38.1 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Jehucal: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">The Hebrew text has “Jucal,” another form of the name.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">38.1 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Shephatiah, Gedaliah, Jehucal, and Pashhur: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">Hebrew “Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jucal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malchiah.”</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">38.7,8 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Ethiopia: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">The Hebrew text has “Cush,” a region south of Egypt that included parts of the present countries of Ethiopia and Sudan.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">38.10 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">30: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">Most Hebrew manuscripts; one Hebrew manuscript “three.”</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">38.14 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Zedekiah: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">See the note at 1.3.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">38.14 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">his private entrance: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">38.17 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Nebuchadnezzar's: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">See the note at 21.2.</char></note><br /><note caller="+" style="f"><char style="fr" closed="false">38.23 </char><char style="fq" closed="false">Jerusalem will be burned down: </char><char style="ft" closed="false">A few Hebrew manuscripts and three ancient translations; most Hebrew manuscripts “you will burn Jerusalem down”; one ancient translation “he will burn Jerusalem down.”</char></note></div></div><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div align="center"><p><span style="font-size:11pt;">Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:11pt;">© 2006 American Bible Society. 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