2 Thus says the Lord: Those who remain in this city shall die by means of the sword, starvation, and disease; but those who go out to the Chaldeans shall live. Their lives shall be spared them as spoils of war that they may live.
3 Thus says the Lord: This city shall certainly be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon; he shall capture it.
4 Then the princes said to the king, “This man ought to be put to death. He is weakening the resolve of the soldiers left in this city and of all the people, by saying such things to them; he is not seeking the welfare of our people, but their ruin.”
5 King Zedekiah answered: “He is in your hands,” for the king could do nothing with them.
6 And so they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Prince Malchiah, in the court of the guard, letting him down by rope. There was no water in the cistern, only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.
7 Now Ebed-melech, an Ethiopian, a court official in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the cistern. The king happened to be sitting at the Gate of Benjamin,
8 and Ebed-melech went there from the house of the king and said to him,