King James Version · Babylon and the exile
Jeremiah 38
Touch any underlined name to see who or where it is. Tap a verse number to see where it is taken up elsewhere.
Then Shephatiah the son of Mattan, and the son of Pashur, and the son of , and Pashur the son of Malchiah, heard the words that had spoken unto all the people, saying, Thus saith , He that remaineth in this city shall , by the , and by the pestilence: but he that goeth forth to the shall live; for he shall have his life for a prey, and shall live. Thus saith , This city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of ’s army, which shall take it. Therefore the princes said unto the king, We beseech thee, let this man be put to : for thus he weakeneth the hands of the men of war that in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words unto them: for this man seeketh not the welfare of this people, but the hurt. Then the king said, Behold, he is in your hand: for the king is not he that can do any thing against you. Then took they , and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hammelech, that was in the court of the prison: and they let down with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire: so sunk in the mire. Now when Ebed–melech the , one of the which was in the king’s house, heard that they had put in the dungeon; the king then sitting in the of ; 8Ebed–melech went forth out of the king’s house, and spake to the king, saying, My the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to the , whom they have cast into the dungeon; and he is like to for in the place where he is: for there is no more bread in the city. Then the king commanded Ebed–melech the , saying, Take from hence thirty men with thee, and take up the out of the dungeon, before he . 11So Ebed–melech took the men with him, and went into the house of the king under the , and took thence old cast clouts and old rotten rags, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to . And Ebed–melech the said unto , Put now these old cast clouts and rotten rags under thine armholes under the cords. And did so. So they drew up with cords, and took him up out of the dungeon: and remained in the court of the prison. Then the king sent, and took the unto him into the third entry that is in the : and the king said unto , I will ask thee a thing; hide nothing from me. Then said unto , If I declare it unto thee, wilt thou not surely put me to ? and if I give thee , wilt thou not unto me? So the king sware secretly unto , saying, As liveth, that made us this , I will not put thee to , neither will I give thee into the hand of these men that seek thy life. Then said unto , Thus saith , the of hosts, the of Israel; If thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of ’s princes, then thy shall live, and this city shall not be burned with ; and thou shalt live, and thine house: But if thou wilt not go forth to the king of ’s princes, then shall this city be given into the hand of the , and they shall burn it with , and thou shalt not escape out of their hand. And the king said unto , I am afraid of the that are fallen to the , lest they me into their hand, and they mock me. But said, They shall not thee. , I beseech thee, , which I speak unto thee: so it shall be well unto thee, and thy shall live. But if thou refuse to go forth, this is the word that hath shewed me: And, behold, all the women that are left in the king of Judah’s house shall be brought forth to the king of ’s princes, and those women shall say, Thy friends have set thee on, and have prevailed against thee: thy feet are sunk in the mire, and they are turned away back. So they shall bring out all thy wives and thy children to the : and thou shalt not escape out of their hand, but shalt be taken by the hand of the king of : and thou shalt cause this city to be burned with . 24Then said unto , Let no man know of these words, and thou shalt not . But if the princes hear that I have talked with thee, and they come unto thee, and say unto thee, Declare unto us now what thou hast said unto the king, hide it not from us, and we will not put thee to ; also what the king said unto thee: Then thou shalt say unto them, I presented my before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan’s house, to there. Then came all the princes unto , and asked him: and he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they left off speaking with him; for the matter was not perceived. So abode in the court of the prison until the day that was taken: and he was there when was taken.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Babylon and the exile, 612 BC to 539 BC ›
Babylon replaces Assyria, Jerusalem and its temple are destroyed in 586 BC, and the leadership of Judah lives in Mesopotamia without a king, a temple, or a country.
- Babylon
- Nebuchadnezzar II rebuilds the city on a scale meant to be seen from a distance: the Ishtar Gate in glazed blue brick, the processional way, the ziggurat, and gardens later counted among the wonders of the world. Babylonian tablets record rations issued to the captive king Jehoiachin of Judah by name, which is one of the tidier points of contact between the Bible and the archives.
- Egypt
- Briefly resurgent. Pharaoh Neco marches north, kills King Josiah at Megiddo, and installs and deposes kings in Jerusalem, until Babylon beats him decisively at Carchemish in 605 BC. Jeremiah spends his career saying that betting on Egypt is suicide, and is proved right.
- Judah
- Deported in stages, then destroyed. The temple is burned, the walls broken, and the leadership marched to Mesopotamia. What happens next is one of the strangest survivals in history: a people keeps its identity without land, king, or sanctuary, and comes out of it with its scriptures more central than before.
- Further afield
- An extraordinary century for ideas everywhere at once. Thales and the first Greek philosophers, Solon's reforms at Athens, the Buddha in India, Confucius and Lao Tzu in China, and Zoroaster in Persia all fall within a few generations of the exile.
All of Jeremiah