10. Then the king ordered Ebed-melech the Ethiopian: “Take three men with you, and get Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.”
11. Ebed-melech took the men with him, and went first to the linen closet in the house of the king. He took some old, tattered rags and lowered them by rope to Jeremiah in the cistern.
12. Then he said to Jeremiah, “Put these old, tattered rags between your armpits and the ropes.” Jeremiah did so,
13. and they pulled him up by rope out of the cistern. But Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.
14. King Zedekiah summoned Jeremiah the prophet to meet him at the third entrance of the house of the Lord. “I have a question to ask you,” the king said to Jeremiah. “Do not hide anything from me.”
15. Jeremiah answered Zedekiah: “If I tell you anything, will you not have me put to death? If I counsel you, you will not listen to me!”
16. But King Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah secretly: “As the Lord lives who gave us our lives, I will not kill you, nor will I hand you over to those men who seek your life.”
17. Jeremiah then said to Zedekiah: “Thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel: If you will only surrender to the princes of Babylon’s king, you shall save your life; this city shall not be destroyed by fire, and you and your household shall live.