Jeremiah 37; Jeremiah 38; Jeremiah 39; Hebrews 3

1 Babylon's King Nebuchadnezzar appointed Zedekiah, Josiah's son, to succeed Coniah, Jehoiakim's son, as king of Judah.

2 Neither Zedekiah, his attendants, nor the people of the land listened to the LORD's words spoken by the prophet Jeremiah.

3 Nevertheless, King Zedekiah sent Jehucal, Shelemiah's son, and the priest Zephaniah, Maaseiah's son, to Jeremiah the prophet with this plea: "Please pray for us to the LORD our God." (

4 Now Jeremiah hadn't been imprisoned yet, so he was free to come and go among the people.

5 Pharaoh's army had recently set out from Egypt; when the Babylonians who were attacking Jerusalem learned of the Egyptian advance, they withdrew from Jerusalem.)

6 Then the LORD's word came to Jeremiah the prophet:

7 The LORD, the God of Israel, proclaims: Tell the king of Judah who sent his emissaries to seek advice from me: "Pharaoh's army that came to assist you is heading back to Egypt.

8 The Babylonians will return and attack this city. They will capture it and burn it down."

9 The LORD proclaims: Don't let yourself be deceived into thinking that the Babylonians will withdraw for good. They won't!

10 Even if you were to crush the entire Babylonian army that's attacking you and only the wounded in their tents remained, they would rise up and burn this city down.

11 Now when the Babylonian army had withdrawn from Jerusalem due to Pharaoh's advance,

12 Jeremiah set out for the land of Benjamin to secure his share of the family property.

13 He got as far as the Benjamin Gate in Jerusalem when the guard there named Irijah, Shelemiah's son and Hananiah's grandson, arrested the prophet Jeremiah, saying, "You are deserting to the Babylonians."

14 "That's a lie," Jeremiah replied. "I'm not deserting to the Babylonians." But Irijah wouldn't listen to him. He arrested Jeremiah and brought him to the officials,

15 who were furious with him. They beat him and threw him into the house of the scribe Jonathan, which had been turned into a prison.

16 So Jeremiah was put in a cistern, which was like a dungeon, where he remained a long time.

17 Later King Zedekiah sent for him and questioned Jeremiah secretly in the palace: "Is there a word from the LORD?" "There is," Jeremiah replied. "You are going to be handed over to the king of Babylon."

18 Then Jeremiah asked King Zedekiah, "What have I done wrong to you or your attendants or this people that you should throw me into prison?

19 Where are your prophets now who prophesied that the king of Babylon wouldn't attack you and this land?

20 Now, my master and king, I beg you, don't send me back to the house of Jonathan the scribe, or I'll die there."

21 So King Zedekiah gave orders that Jeremiah be held in the prison quarters and that he receive a loaf of bread daily from the street vendors—until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the prison quarters.

1 Shephatiah, Mattan's son; Gedaliah, Pashhur's son; Jucal, Shelemiah's son; and Pashhur, Malchiah's son heard what Jeremiah had been telling the people:

2 The LORD proclaims: Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine, and disease. But whoever surrenders to the Babylonians will live; yes, their lives will be spared.

3 The LORD proclaims: This city will certainly be handed over to the army of Babylon's king, who will capture it.

4 Then the officials said to the king: "This man must be put to death! By saying such things, he is discouraging the few remaining troops left in the city, as well as all the people. This man doesn't seek their welfare but their ruin!"

5 "He's in your hands," King Zedekiah said, "for the king can do nothing to stop you."

6 So they seized Jeremiah, threw him into the cistern of the royal prince Malchiah, within the prison quarters, and lowered him down by ropes. Now there wasn't any water in the cistern, only mud, and Jeremiah began to sink into the mud.

7 Ebed-melech the Cushite, a court official in the royal palace, got word that they had thrown Jeremiah into the cistern. Since the king was sitting at the Benjamin Gate,

8 Ebed-melech left the palace and said to the king:

9 "My master the king, these men have made a terrible mistake in treating the prophet Jeremiah the way they have; they have thrown him into the cistern where he will die of starvation, for there's no bread left in the city."

10 Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Cushite, "Take thirty men from here and take Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies."

11 So Ebed-melech took the men and returned to the palace, to an underground supply room, where he found some old rags and scraps of clothing. Ebed-melech lowered them down the cistern by the ropes

12 and called to Jeremiah, "Put these old rags and scraps of clothing under your arms and hold on to the ropes." When Jeremiah did this,

13 they pulled him up by the ropes and got him out of the cistern. After that Jeremiah remained in the prison quarters.

14 King Zedekiah ordered that the prophet Jeremiah be brought to him at the third entrance of the LORD's temple, where the king said to Jeremiah, "I want to ask you something, and don't hide anything from me."

15 Jeremiah replied, "If I do, you'll kill me! And if I tell you what to do, you won't listen to me!"

16 So King Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah behind closed doors, "As the LORD lives, who has given us this life, I won't put you to death and I won't hand you over to those who seek to kill you."

17 So Jeremiah said to Zedekiah: "The LORD of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: If you surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, you and your family will live, and this city will not be burned down.

18 If you don't surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, the city will be handed over to the Babylonians, who will burn it down, and you won't escape from them."

19 King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, "I'm afraid that I will fall into the hands of the Judeans who have defected to the Babylonians, and they will torture me."

20 "That won't happen," Jeremiah replied, “if you obey the LORD, whose message I bring. You will survive, and all will go well for you.

21 But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the LORD has shown me:

22 All the women left in the palace of the king of Judah will be led out to the officers of the king of Babylon. And they will say: ‘Your trusted friends have betrayed you; they have deceived you; now that your feet are stuck in the mud, they are nowhere to be found.'

23 "All your wives and children will be led out to the Babylonians, and you yourself won't escape from them. The king of Babylon will capture you, and this city will be burned down."

24 Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, "No one is to know about these matters or else you will die.

25 If the officials find out that we met, and they come and say to you, ‘Tell us what you said to the king. Don't hide anything from us; otherwise, we'll kill you. So what did the king say to you?'

26 you should say to them, ‘I was begging the king not to send me back to the house of Jonathan to die there.'"

27 Then all the officials approached Jeremiah to question him. And he responded exactly as the king had instructed him. So they stopped interrogating him because the conversation between the king and Jeremiah hadn't been overheard.

28 Jeremiah remained in the prison quarters until Jerusalem was captured.

1 In the ninth year and the tenth month of Judah's King Zedekiah, Babylon's King Nebuchadnezzar and his entire army came against Jerusalem and surrounded it.

2 In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, on the ninth day of the fourth month, they broke through the city walls.

3 Then all the commanding officers of the king of Babylon—Nergal-sharezer, Samgar-nebo, Sarsechim the chief officer, Nergal-sharezer the field commander—entered it and took their places at the middle gate with the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon.

4 When Judah's King Zedekiah and his troops saw them, they tried to escape at night through the royal gardens and the gate between the two walls, toward the desert plain.

5 But the Babylonian army chased them down and caught Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. They arrested him and brought him before Babylon's King Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah in the land of Hamath. There the king put him on trial.

6 The king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah's children at Riblah before his very own eyes, and the king of Babylon slaughtered all the officials of Judah.

7 Then he gouged out Zedekiah's eyes, bound him in chains, and dragged him off to Babylon.

8 The Babylonians burned down the royal palace and the houses of the people, and they destroyed the Jerusalem walls.

9 Nebuzaradan the captain of the special guard rounded up the rest of the people who were left in the city, including those who had defected to the Babylonians, and deported them to Babylon.

10 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the special guard left some of the poorest people in the land of Judah. He gave them vineyards and fields at that time.

11 Babylon's King Nebuchadnezzar gave orders concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzaradan the captain of the special guard:

12 "Find Jeremiah and look after him; don't harm him but do whatever he asks from you."

13 So Nebuzaradan the captain of the special guard, Nebushazban the chief officer, Nergal-sharezer the field commander, and all the commanders of the king of Babylon

14 sent orders to release Jeremiah from the prison quarters. They entrusted him to Gedaliah, Ahikam's son and Shaphan's grandson, so that Jeremiah could move about freely among the people.

15 The LORD's word came to Jeremiah when he was still confined to the prison quarters:

16 Go and say to Ebed-melech the Cushite that the LORD of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: I'm about to fulfill my words concerning this city, for harm and not for good. You will witness it for yourself on that day.

17 But on that day, declares the LORD: I will rescue you; you won't be handed over to those you dread.

18 I will defend you; you won't die in battle. You will escape with your life, because you have trusted in me, declares the LORD.

1 Therefore, brothers and sisters who are partners in the heavenly calling, think about Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession.

2 Jesus was faithful to the one who appointed him just like Moses was faithful in God's house.

3 But he deserves greater glory than Moses in the same way that the builder of the house deserves more honor than the house itself.

4 Every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.

5 Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant in order to affirm the things that would be spoken later.

6 But Jesus was faithful over God's house as a Son. We are his house if we hold on to the confidence and the pride that our hope gives us.

7 So, as the Holy Spirit says, Today, if you hear his voice,

8 don't have stubborn hearts as they did in the rebellion, on the day when they tested me in the desert.

9 That is where your ancestors challenged and tested me, though they had seen my work for forty years.

10 So I was angry with them. I said, "Their hearts always go off course, and they don't know my ways."

11 Because of my anger I swore: "They will never enter my rest!"

12 Watch out, brothers and sisters, so that none of you have an evil, unfaithful heart that abandons the living God.

13 Instead, encourage each other every day, as long as it's called "today," so that none of you become insensitive to God because of sin's deception.

14 We are partners with Christ, but only if we hold on to the confidence we had in the beginning until the end.

15 When it says, Today, if you hear his voice, don't have stubborn hearts as they did in the rebellion.

16 Who was it who rebelled when they heard his voice? Wasn't it all of those who were brought out of Egypt by Moses?

17 And with whom was God angry for forty years? Wasn't it with the ones who sinned, whose bodies fell in the desert?

18 And against whom did he swear that they would never enter his rest, if not against the ones who were disobedient?

19 We see that they couldn't enter because of their lack of faith.