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Imprisoned for the Word
37 Now Zedekiah son of Josiah reigned as king, instead of Coniah son of Jehoiakim, whom King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon made king in the land of Judah. 2 But neither he nor his servants, nor the people of the land, paid attention to the words of Adonai which He spoke by the prophet Jeremiah.
3 Yet King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah son of Maaseiah the priest to the prophet Jeremiah, saying: “Pray now to Adonai our God for us.”
4 Now Jeremiah was coming in and going out among the people, for they had not put him into prison. 5 Meanwhile Pharaoh’s army had set out of Egypt, and when the Chaldeans besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them, they lifted the siege from Jerusalem.
6 Then came the word of Adonai to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, 7 thus says Adonai, the God of Israel, thus will you say to the king of Judah, who sent you to Me to inquire of Me: “Now, Pharaoh’s army, which is come forth to help you, will return to Egypt into their own land. 8 The Chaldeans will return and fight against this city. Then they will capture it and burn it with fire.”
9 Thus says Adonai: “Do not deceive yourselves, saying: ‘The Chaldeans will surely depart from us’—for they will not depart. 10 For even if you had struck down the entire Chaldean army fighting against you, and there were left among them only wounded men, each in his tent, they would get up and burn this city down with fire.”
11 So it came to pass, when the army of the Chaldeans went up from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s army, 12 that Jeremiah went out of Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin to claim his property there among the people. 13 But when he was at the Benjamin Gate, a captain of the guard was there, whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah son of Hananiah, who arrested the prophet Jeremiah, saying: “You are deserting to the Chaldeans!”
14 But Jeremiah said, “That’s a lie! I am not deserting to the Chaldeans!” But Irijah would not listen to him, but arrested Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. 15 The officials were angry with Jeremiah, had him beaten, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for they had made that the prison.
16 For Jeremiah went into a vaulted cell in the dungeon pit, and Jeremiah remained there many days. 17 Then King Zedekiah sent for him and received him in his palace secretly, and the king asked him: “Is there any word from Adonai?”
“There is,” Jeremiah said, and he also said, “You shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon.” 18 Moreover Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah: “How have I sinned against you or against your servants or against this people, that you have put me in prison? 19 Where now are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying: ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you or against this land?’ 20 So now please listen, my lord the king! Please let my petition come before you and do not make me return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, so I will not die there.”
21 Then Zedekiah the king gave a command, and they committed Jeremiah into the courtyard of the guard. They gave him a loaf of bread from the bakers’ street daily, until all the bread in the city was spent. So Jeremiah stayed in the guard’s courtyard.
In a Miry Cistern-Pit
38 Now Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jucal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malchiah heard the words that Jeremiah spoke to all the people, saying, 2 thus says Adonai: “He that remains in this city will die by the sword, by famine, and by plague, but anyone who goes out to the Chaldeans will live—so he will keep his life like the spoils of war, and will live.” 3 Thus says Adonai: “This city will surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.”
4 Then the officials said to the king: “This man should now be put to death, since he demoralizes the men of war remaining in this city as well as all the people, by speaking such words to them. For this man is not seeking the shalom of this people, but calamity.”
5 Then King Zedekiah said: “Here he is in your hand. For the king cannot do anything against you.”
6 So they took Jeremiah and cast him into the cistern-pit of Malchiah the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard, lowering Jeremiah down with ropes. Now in the pit there was no water, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank into the mud.
7 Now Ebed-melech[a]—an Ethiopian official in the king’s palace—heard they had put Jeremiah in the pit. While the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate, 8 Ebed-melech went out from the king’s palace and spoke to the king, saying: 9 “My lord the king, these men have done evil in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet, whom they cast into the pit. He is likely to die right where he is from hunger, for there is no more bread in the city.”
10 Then the king commanded Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, saying: “Take thirty men from here with you, and bring the prophet Jeremiah up out of the cistern, before he dies.”
11 So Ebed-melech took the men with him and went into the king’s palace under the storehouse, from there he took worn-out clothes and worn-out rags, and lowered them by ropes into the cistern-pit to Jeremiah. 12 And Ebed-melech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah: “Now put these worn-out clothes and rags under your armpits under the ropes.”
Jeremiah did so. 13 Then they pulled Jeremiah up with the ropes, and lifted him up out of the pit. But Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.
14 Then Zedekiah the king sent for the prophet Jeremiah and received him at the third entrance in the House of Adonai. The king said to Jeremiah: “I am going to ask you something—hide nothing from me.”
15 Jeremiah said to Zedekiah: “If I tell you, won’t you surely put me to death? Besides, if I give you counsel, you won’t listen to me.”
16 So Zedekiah the king swore secretly to Jeremiah, saying: “As Adonai lives, that gave us life, I will not put you to death, nor will I give you into the hand of these men seeking your life.”
17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah: Thus says Adonai, Elohim-Tzva’ot, the God of Israel: “If you will go out to the officers of the king of Babylon, then your soul will live, this city will not be burned with fire; and you and your household will survive. 18 But if you do not go out to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city will be handed over to the Chaldeans; they will burn it with fire, and you will not escape out of their hand.”
19 Zedekiah the king said to Jeremiah: “I am afraid of the Judeans who have deserted to the Chaldeans, lest they hand me over to them and they abuse me.”
20 But Jeremiah said: “They will not hand you over. Please, obey the voice of Adonai, in what I am speaking to you, so it will go well for you, and your soul will live! 21 But if you keep refusing to go out, this is the word that Adonai has shown me: 22 ‘Soon, all the women who are left in the palace of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officers of the king of Babylon, and those women will say:
“Your close friends have misled you,
and prevailed over you.
Your feet are sunk in the mire,
and they deserted you.’”
23 “Then they will bring out all your wives and your children to the Chaldeans, and you shall not escape out of their hand, but shall be seized by the hand of the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned down with fire.”
24 Then said Zedekiah to Jeremiah: “Let no one know of these words, and you will not die.
25 “But if the officials hear that I have talked with you, and they come to you and say to you: ‘Tell us now what you have said to the king—hide nothing from us and we will not put you to death. And what did the king say to you?’ 26 Then you will tell them, ‘I was presenting my petition before the king, not to make me return to Jonathan’s house to die there.’”
27 When all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him, he told them with just these words that the king had commanded. So they stopped speaking with him, since the matter was not overheard.
28 Then Jeremiah stayed in the guard’s courtyard until the day that Jerusalem was captured.
6 Let all who are under the yoke as slaves consider their own masters worthy of full respect, so that God’s name and our teaching may not be slandered. 2 And let those who have believing masters not disrespect them because they are brothers, but serve them even more, since those who share in the benefit are believers and loved. Teach and encourage these things.
Finding True Riches
3 If anyone passes on a different teaching and does not agree with sound words, those of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, and with the instruction in keeping with godliness, 4 he is prideful, understanding nothing. Instead he is obsessed with arguments and disputes about words—out of which come envy, strife, slander, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction between people corrupted in mind and deprived of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.
6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain. [a] 7 For we brought nothing into this world, So we cannot take anything out of it. [b] 8 But having food and clothing, with these things we shall be content. [c] 9 But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and a trap and many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. [d] 10 For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil—some, longing for it, have gone astray from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
11 But you, O man of God, flee from these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faithfulness, love, perseverance, and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of faith! Take hold of the eternal life—you were called to it, and you made the good confession for it in the presence of many witnesses. 13 I charge you before God who gives life to all things and Messiah Yeshua who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, 14 to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. 15 This He will reveal in His own time—the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, [e] 16 who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or is able to see.[f] To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.
17 Direct those who are rich in this present age not to be proud or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches,[g] but rather on God—who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 Direct them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, to be generous, sharing, 19 storing up for themselves a good foundation for the future, so they might take hold of the true life.
20 O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, turning away from pointless chatter and the contradictions of so-called knowledge— 21 by professing it, some have missed the mark concerning the faith.
Grace be with you.
38 and as the moon, established forever,
and a trustworthy witness in the sky.” Selah
39 But You have cast off and spurned,
You have become furious with Your anointed one.
40 You have renounced the covenant of Your servant.
You have defiled his crown even to the ground.
41 You have broken down all his walls.
You reduced his strongholds to ruin.
42 All who pass by have plundered him.
He has become a taunt to his neighbors.
43 You exalted the right hand of his foes
and made all his enemies rejoice.
44 You turned back the edge of his sword
and have not supported him in battle.
45 You brought his splendor to an end,
and cast his throne down to the ground.
46 You cut short the days of his youth.
You covered him with shame. Selah
47 How long, Adonai, will You hide Yourself?
Forever?
Will Your fury keep burning like fire?
48 Remember how short my life span is!
For what futility have You created all the children of men?
49 What man can live and not see death?
Can he deliver himself from the clutches of Sheol? Selah
50 Where is Your former lovingkindness, my Lord,
which You swore to David in Your faithfulness?[a]
51 Remember, my Lord, the mockery against Your servants
that I bear in my heart from so many peoples.
52 How Your enemies have mocked, Adonai,
how they have mocked
the footsteps of Your Anointed One![b]
28 Like a city whose walls are broken down
is one with no control over his temper.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.