Quotes About Hope

Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, claiming, ëThe king of Babylon will not come against you or this landí?

But now please listen, O my lord the king. May my petition come before you. Do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the scribe, or I will die there.”

So King Zedekiah gave orders for Jeremiah to be placed in the courtyard of the guard and given a loaf of bread daily from the street of the bakers, until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.

“This is what the LORD says: Whoever stays in this city will die by sword and famine and plague, but whoever surrenders to the Chaldeans will live; he will retain his life like a spoil of war, and he will live.

This is what the LORD says: This city will surely be delivered into the hands of the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.”

Then the officials said to the king, “This man ought to die, for he is discouraging the warriors who remain in this city, as well as all the people, by speaking such words to them; this man is not seeking the well-being of these people, but their ruin.”

So they took Jeremiah and dropped him into the cistern of Malchiah, the kingís son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah with ropes into the cistern, which had no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.

Ebed-melech went out from the kingís palace and said to the king,

“My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. They have dropped him into the cistern, where he will starve to death, for there is no more bread in the city.”

So the king commanded Ebed-melech the Cushite, “Take thirty men from here with you and pull Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.”

Then Ebed-melech took the men with him and went to the kingís palace, to a place below the storehouse. From there he took old rags and worn-out clothes and lowered them with ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern.

Ebed-melech the Cushite cried out to Jeremiah, “Put these worn-out rags and clothes under your arms to pad the ropes.” Jeremiah did so,

and they pulled him up with the ropes and lifted him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.

But King Zedekiah swore secretly to Jeremiah, “As surely as the LORD lives, who has given us this life, I will not kill you, nor will I deliver you into the hands of these men who are seeking your life.”

Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what the LORD God of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ëIf you indeed surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then you will live, this city will not be burned down, and you and your household will survive.

then tell them, ëI was presenting to the king my petition that he not return me to the house of Jonathan to die there.í”

And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard until the day Jerusalem was captured.

But Nebuzaradan left behind in the land of Judah some of the poor people who had no property, and at that time he gave them vineyards and fields.

And while Jeremiah had been confined in the courtyard of the guard, the word of the LORD had come to him:

“Go and tell Ebed-melech the Cushite that this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ëI am about to fulfill My words against this city for harm and not for good, and on that day they will be fulfilled before your eyes.

But I will deliver you on that day, declares the LORD, and you will not be delivered into the hands of the men whom you fear.

For I will surely rescue you so that you do not fall by the sword. Because you have trusted in Me, you will escape with your life like a spoil of war, declares the LORD.í”

The captain of the guard found Jeremiah and said to him, “The LORD your God decreed this disaster on this place,

So Jeremiah went to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah and stayed with him among the people who were left in the land.