Through the Bible – Day 310

₁One day, Shephatiah, Gedaliah, Jehucal, and Pashhur heard me tell the people of Judah _2-3that the LORD 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.”

₄So 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.”

₅Zedekiah replied, “Do what you want with him. I can't stop you.”

₆Then 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, and I sank down in the mud.

_7-8Ebedmelech from Ethiopia 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. ₉Ebedmelech 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.”

₁₀Zedekiah answered, “Take thirty of my soldiers and pull Jeremiah out before he dies.”

₁₁Ebedmelech 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. ₁₂Then he said, “Put these rags under your arms so the ropes won't hurt you.” After I had done that, ₁₃the men pulled me out. And from then on, I was kept in the courtyard of the palace guards.

₁₄King Zedekiah had me brought to his private entrance to the temple, and he said, “I'm going to ask you something, and I want to know the truth.”

₁₅“Why?” I replied. “You won't listen, and you might even have me killed!”

₁₆He said, “I swear in the name of the living LORD 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.”

₁₇Then I told him that the LORD had said: “Zedekiah, I am the LORD God All-Powerful, the God of Israel. I promise that if you surrender to King Nebuchadnezzar's officers, you and your family won't be killed, and Jerusalem won't be burnt down. ₁₈But if you don't surrender, I will let the Babylonian army capture Jerusalem and burn it down, and you will be taken prisoner.”

₁₉Zedekiah answered, “I can't surrender to the Babylonians. I'm too afraid of the Jews who have already joined them. The Babylonians might hand me over to those Jews, and they would torture me.”

₂₀I said, “If you will just obey the LORD, the Babylonians won't hand you over to those Jews. You will be allowed to live, and all will go well for you. ₂₁But the LORD has shown me that if you refuse to obey, ₂₂then the women of your palace will be taken prisoner by Nebuchadnezzar's officials. And those women will say to you:

₂₄Zedekiah said, “Jeremiah, if you tell anyone what we have talked about, you might lose your life. ₂₅And 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. ₂₆So 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.”

₂₇The 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.

₂₈I was held in the courtyard of the palace guards until the day Jerusalem was captured.

_1-3In the tenth month of the ninth year that Zedekiah was king of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army began their attack on Jerusalem. They kept the city surrounded for a year and a half. Then, on the ninth day of the fourth month of the eleventh year that Zedekiah was king, they broke through the city walls.

After Jerusalem was captured, Nebuchadnezzar's highest officials, including Nebo Sarsechim and Nergal Sharezer from Simmagir, took their places at Middle Gate to show they were in control of the city.

₄When King Zedekiah and his troops saw that Jerusalem had been captured, they tried to escape from the city that same night. They went to the king's garden, where they slipped through the gate between the two city walls and headed towards the valley of the River Jordan. ₅But the Babylonian troops caught up with them near Jericho. They arrested Zedekiah and took him to the town of Riblah in the land of Hamath, where Nebuchadnezzar put him on trial, then found him guilty ₆and gave orders for him to be punished. Zedekiah's sons were killed there in front of him, and so were the leaders of Judah's ruling families. ₇His eyes were put out, and he was put in chains, so he could be dragged off to Babylonia.

₈Meanwhile, the Babylonian army had burnt the houses in Jerusalem, including the royal palace, and they had broken down the city walls. ₉Nebuzaradan, the Babylonian officer in charge of the guards, led away everyone from the city as prisoners, even those who had deserted to Nebuchadnezzar. ₁₀Only the poorest people who owned no land were left behind in Judah, and Nebuzaradan gave them fields and vineyards.

₁₁Nebuchadnezzar had given the following orders to Nebuzaradan: ₁₂“Find Jeremiah and keep him safe. Take good care of him and do whatever he asks.”

₁₃Nebuzaradan, Nebushazban, Nergal Sharezer, and the other officers of King Nebuchadnezzar ₁₄sent some of their troops to bring me from the courtyard of the royal palace guards. They put me in the care of Gedaliah son of Ahikam and told him to take me to my home. And so I was allowed to stay with the people who remained in Judah.

₁₅While I was a prisoner in the courtyard of the palace guard, the LORD told me to say ₁₆to Ebedmelech from Ethiopia:

I am the LORD All-Powerful, the God of Israel. I warned everyone that I would bring disaster, not prosperity, to this city. Now very soon I will do what I said, and you will see it happen. _17-18But because you trusted me, I will protect you from the officials of Judah, and when Judah is struck by disaster, I will rescue you and keep you alive. I, the LORD, have spoken.

₁I was led away in chains along with the people of Judah and Jerusalem who were being taken to Babylonia. Nebuzaradan was the officer in charge of the guard, and when we stopped at Ramah, the LORD made him set me free. ₂Nebuzaradan said:

Nebuzaradan gave me a supply of food, then let me leave. ₆I decided to stay with the people of Judah, and I went to live near Gedaliah in Mizpah.

_7-8Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, together with Johanan and Jonathan, the two sons of Kareah, had been officers in Judah's army. And so had Seraiah the son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah from Maacah. They and their troops had been stationed outside Jerusalem and had not been captured. They heard that Gedaliah had been chosen to rule Judah, and that the poorest men, women, and children had not been taken away to Babylonia. So they went to Mizpah and met with their new ruler.

₉Gedaliah told them, “There's no need to be afraid of the Babylonians. Everything will be fine, if we live peacefully and obey King Nebuchadnezzar. ₁₀I will stay here at Mizpah and meet with the Babylonian officials on each of their visits. But you must go back to your towns and bring in the harvest, then store the wine, olive oil, and dried fruit.”

_11-12Earlier, when the Babylonians had invaded Judah, many of the Jews escaped to Moab, Ammon, Edom, and several other countries. But these Jews heard that the king of Babylonia had appointed Gedaliah as ruler of Judah, and that only a few people were left there. So the Jews in these other countries came back to Judah and helped with the grape and fruit harvest, which was especially large that year.

₁What I mean is that we have a high priest who sits at the right side of God's great throne in heaven. ₂He also serves as the priest in the most holy place inside the real tent there in heaven. This tent of worship was set up by the Lord, not by humans.

₃Since all priests must offer gifts and sacrifices, Christ also needed to have something to offer. ₄If he were here on earth, he would not be a priest at all, because here the Law appoints other priests to offer sacrifices. ₅But the tent where they serve is just a copy and a shadow of the real one in heaven. Before Moses made the tent, he was told, “Be sure to make it exactly like the pattern you were shown on the mountain!” ₆Now Christ has been appointed to serve as a priest in a much better way, and he has given us much assurance of a better agreement.

₇If the first agreement with God had been all right, there would not have been any need for another one. ₈But the Lord found fault with it and said,

₁₃When the Lord talks about a new agreement, he means that the first one is out of date. And anything that is old and useless will soon disappear.