However, Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, a eunuch who worked in the royal palace, heard that they had put me in the well. At that time the king was holding court at the Benjamin Gate.

"Your Majesty, what these men have done is wrong. They have put Jeremiah in the well, where he is sure to die of starvation, since there is no more food in the city."

So Ebedmelech went with the men to the palace storeroom and got some worn-out clothing which he let down to me by ropes.

and they pulled me up out of the well. After that I was kept in the courtyard.

(SEE 5:13)

and to tell them that the LORD Almighty had said, "I will break this people and this city, and it will be like this broken clay jar that cannot be put together again. People will bury their dead even in Topheth because there will be nowhere else to bury them.

I promise that I will make this city and its inhabitants like Topheth.

But as for you, your officials, and the people who survive the war, the famine, and the disease---I will let all of you be captured by King Nebuchadnezzar and by your enemies, who want to kill you. Nebuchadnezzar will put you to death. He will not spare any of you or show mercy or pity to any of you. I, the LORD, have spoken."

Anyone who stays in the city will be killed in war or by starvation or disease. But those who go out and surrender to the Babylonians, who are now attacking the city, will not be killed; they will at least escape with their life.

"As for King Zedekiah of Judah, the politicians around him, and the rest of the people of Jerusalem who have stayed in this land or moved to Egypt---I, the LORD, will treat them all like these figs that are too bad to be eaten.

I will bring war, starvation, and disease on them until there is not one of them left in the land that I gave to them and their ancestors."

But be sure of this: if you kill me, you and the people of this city will be guilty of killing an innocent man, because it is the LORD who sent me to give you this warning."

"When Hezekiah was king of Judah, the prophet Micah of Moresheth told all the people that the LORD Almighty had said, 'Zion will be plowed like a field; Jerusalem will become a pile of ruins, and the Temple hill will become a forest.'

(There was another man, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath Jearim, who spoke in the name of the LORD against this city and nation just as Jeremiah did.

I am going to give this city over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his army; they will capture it

and set it on fire. They will burn it down, together with the houses where people have made me angry by burning incense to Baal on the rooftops and by pouring out wine offerings to other gods.

The LORD, the God of Israel, told me to go and say to King Zedekiah of Judah, "I, the LORD, will hand this city over to the king of Babylonia, and he will burn it down.

You will not escape; you will be captured and handed over to him. You will see him face-to-face and talk to him in person; then you will go to Babylonia.

I will give the order, and they will return to this city. They will attack it, capture it, and burn it down. I will make the towns of Judah like a desert where no one lives. I, the LORD, have spoken."

So now, I, the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, will bring on you people of Judah and of Jerusalem all the destruction that I promised. I will do this because you would not listen when I spoke to you, and you would not answer when I called you."

I will punish you, your descendants, and your officials because of the sins all of you commit. Neither you nor the people of Jerusalem and of Judah have paid any attention to my warnings, and so I will bring on all of you the disaster that I have threatened."

But a few of you will escape death and return from Egypt to Judah. Then the survivors will know whose words have come true, mine or theirs.

I, the LORD, will give you proof that I will punish you in this place and that my promise to bring destruction on you will come true.

"Now my time has come to die. Every one of you knows in his heart and soul that the LORD your God has given you all the good things that he promised. Every promise he made has been kept; not one has failed.

But just as he kept every promise that he made to you, so he will carry out every threat.

And so what the LORD had foretold through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: "The land will lie desolate for seventy years, to make up for the Sabbath rest that has not been observed."

You did what you said you would do to us and our rulers. You punished Jerusalem more severely than any other city on earth,

Through my servants the prophets I gave your ancestors commands and warnings, but they disregarded them and suffered the consequences. Then they repented and acknowledged that I, the LORD Almighty, had punished them as they deserved and as I had determined to do.' "

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

You will look and see how the wicked are punished.

You have made the LORD your defender, the Most High your protector,

I have seen the defeat of my enemies and heard the cries of the wicked.