Single lesson
Jeremiah Is Imprisoned and Rescued from the Cistern
Jeremiah 37:1–38:28
Jeremiah keeps speaking Yahweh’s word while rulers and officials react with fear, anger, and secrecy. Students will trace the account carefully, compare people’s choices, and observe the outcomes named in the passage.
Before you teach
Zedekiah reigns in Judah, yet the king, his servants, and the people do not listen to Yahweh’s words spoken through Jeremiah. The king still asks Jeremiah to pray. After the Chaldeans briefly withdraw, Jeremiah is accused, beaten, imprisoned, put into a dungeon where there is no water but mire, rescued, and questioned again by the king.
Students will sequence the main events of Jeremiah 37:1-38:28 and identify at least two choices and consequences stated in the passage.
Welcome: Listen for repeated choices
5 minIntroduce the lesson as a close reading of a difficult passage. Read Jeremiah 37:1-3. Ask students to listen for who does and does not respond to Yahweh’s word. Point out the tension already in the text: Zedekiah asks Jeremiah to pray, yet the king, his servants, and the people do not listen to Yahweh’s words.
Jeremiah 37:1, Jeremiah 37:2, Jeremiah 37:3
Read and explain: Jeremiah’s message and first imprisonment
10 minRead Jeremiah 37:5-21. Explain that the Chaldeans withdraw because of Pharaoh’s army, but Yahweh says they will return, fight against the city, take it, and burn it with fire. When Jeremiah goes toward Benjamin, he is accused of defecting to the Chaldeans, seized, struck, and put in prison. Later Zedekiah secretly asks for Yahweh’s word, and Jeremiah gives the same message again.
Jeremiah 37:5, Jeremiah 37:7, Jeremiah 37:8, Jeremiah 37:9, Jeremiah 37:10, Jeremiah 37:12, Jeremiah 37:13, Jeremiah 37:14, Jeremiah 37:15, Jeremiah 37:17, Jeremiah 37:21
Discuss: Dungeon, mire, and rescue
9 minRead Jeremiah 38:1-13. Ask students to compare the princes’ response with Ebedmelech’s response. The princes say Jeremiah weakens the people and ask for his death. The king leaves him in their hand. They throw Jeremiah into the dungeon, where there is no water but mire, and he sinks in the mire. Ebedmelech tells the king they have done evil and rescues Jeremiah with men, cords, rags, and worn-out garments.
Jeremiah 38:1, Jeremiah 38:2, Jeremiah 38:3, Jeremiah 38:4, Jeremiah 38:5, Jeremiah 38:6, Jeremiah 38:7, Jeremiah 38:8, Jeremiah 38:9, Jeremiah 38:10, Jeremiah 38:11, Jeremiah 38:12, Jeremiah 38:13
Make and respond: Sequence and consequence cards
10 minIn small groups, students make sober sequence cards from the account, using brief event labels and verse references. Include the king’s request for prayer, the Chaldeans’ withdrawal, the accusation, prison, the dungeon, Ebedmelech’s appeal, the rescue, Jeremiah’s counsel, and Jeremiah remaining in the court of the guard. After ordering the cards, students add one stated choice and one stated outcome beside each key event.
Jeremiah 37:3, Jeremiah 37:5, Jeremiah 37:13, Jeremiah 37:15, Jeremiah 37:17, Jeremiah 38:6, Jeremiah 38:8, Jeremiah 38:13, Jeremiah 38:17, Jeremiah 38:18, Jeremiah 38:28
Closing: Zedekiah hears, fears, and keeps matters hidden
6 minRead Jeremiah 38:14-28. Summarise Jeremiah’s counsel plainly: if Zedekiah goes out to the king of Babylon’s princes, he and the city will live; if he refuses, the city will be burned and he will not escape. Note that Zedekiah says he is afraid, then tells Jeremiah not to let others know their words. Finish with the passage’s final note that Jeremiah remains in the court of the guard until Jerusalem is taken.
Jeremiah 38:14, Jeremiah 38:15, Jeremiah 38:16, Jeremiah 38:17, Jeremiah 38:18, Jeremiah 38:19, Jeremiah 38:20, Jeremiah 38:24, Jeremiah 38:25, Jeremiah 38:26, Jeremiah 38:27, Jeremiah 38:28
Questions to explore
What word from Yahweh does Jeremiah repeat, even when others oppose him?
Look at the statements that the Chaldeans will return, take the city, and that the one who goes out to them will live.
Jeremiah 37:8, Jeremiah 38:2, Jeremiah 38:3
How are the princes, Ebedmelech, and Zedekiah different in the way they treat Jeremiah?
Compare the princes asking for Jeremiah’s death, Ebedmelech calling their action evil and lifting Jeremiah out, and Zedekiah questioning Jeremiah yet leaving matters hidden.
Jeremiah 38:4, Jeremiah 38:5, Jeremiah 38:9, Jeremiah 38:10, Jeremiah 38:13, Jeremiah 38:24, Jeremiah 38:27
What two outcomes does Jeremiah set before Zedekiah?
Read the if and if not statements carefully and list what the passage says will happen in each case.
Jeremiah 38:17, Jeremiah 38:18, Jeremiah 38:20, Jeremiah 38:23
Make, think or respond
Sequence and Consequence Cards
What you’ll need
- plain paper or scrap card
- pens or textas
- scissors
- Bible
Try it together
- Write nine brief event cards from the passage, each with a verse reference.
- Place the cards in order by rereading the verses together.
- Next to each event, add one choice someone makes in the passage.
- Add one consequence or result stated in the text for at least five of the cards.
- Review which choices show listening, fear, harm, rescue, or secrecy.
This activity keeps the focus on the passage’s order, wording, and stated consequences, especially Jeremiah’s imprisonment, rescue, and counsel to Zedekiah.
Adapt for your group
- For students who need more support, provide the event titles in mixed order and ask them to match each one to its verse before arranging the full sequence.
- For students ready for extension, ask them to sort their consequence notes under two headings: outcomes of listening and outcomes of refusing, using Jeremiah 37:17-21 and Jeremiah 38:17-23.
An optional closing prayer
You could pray: “Lord, help us listen when your word is hard to hear. Help us speak truthfully and act justly toward people in trouble. Amen.”
Read the Bible passage World English Bible Classic
Jeremiah 37
1 Zedekiah the son of Josiah reigned as king instead of Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah.
2 But neither he, nor his servants, nor the people of the land, listened to Yahweh’s words, which he spoke by the prophet Jeremiah.
3 Zedekiah the king sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “Pray now to Yahweh our God for us.”
4 Now Jeremiah came in and went out among the people, for they had not put him into prison.
5 Pharaoh’s army had come out of Egypt; and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard news of them, they withdrew from Jerusalem.
6 Then Yahweh’s word came to the prophet Jeremiah, saying,
7 “Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘You shall tell the king of Judah, who sent you to me to inquire of me: “Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which has come out to help you, will return to Egypt into their own land.
8 The Chaldeans will come again, and fight against this city. They will take it and burn it with fire.” ’
9 “Yahweh says, ‘Don’t deceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will surely depart from us;” for they will not depart.
10 For though you had struck the whole army of the Chaldeans who fight against you, and only wounded men remained among them, they would each rise up in his tent and burn this city with fire.’ ”
11 When the army of the Chaldeans had withdrawn from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s army,
12 then Jeremiah went out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin, to receive his portion there, in the middle of the people.
13 When he was in Benjamin’s gate, a captain of the guard was there, whose name was Irijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah; and he seized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “You are defecting to the Chaldeans!”
14 Then Jeremiah said, “That is false! I am not defecting to the Chaldeans.” But he didn’t listen to him; so Irijah seized Jeremiah, and brought him to the princes.
15 The princes were angry with Jeremiah, and struck him, and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan the scribe; for they had made that the prison.
16 When Jeremiah had come into the dungeon house and into the cells, and Jeremiah had remained there many days,
17 then Zedekiah the king sent and had him brought out. The king asked him secretly in his house, “Is there any word from Yahweh?” Jeremiah said, “There is.” He also said, “You will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.”
18 Moreover Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “How have I sinned against you, against your servants, or against this people, that you have put me in prison?
19 Now where are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you, nor against this land’?
20 Now please hear, my lord the king: please let my supplication be presented before you, that you not cause me to return to the house of Jonathan the scribe, lest I die there.”
21 Then Zedekiah the king commanded, and they committed Jeremiah into the court of the guard. They gave him daily a loaf of bread out of the bakers’ street, until all the bread in the city was gone. Thus Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.
Jeremiah 38
1 Shephatiah the son of Mattan, Gedaliah the son of Pashhur, Jucal the son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur the son of Malchijah heard the words that Jeremiah spoke to all the people, saying,
2 “Yahweh says, ‘He who remains in this city will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, but he who goes out to the Chaldeans will live. He will escape with his life and he will live.’
3 Yahweh says, ‘This city will surely be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he will take it.’ ”
4 Then the princes said to the king, “Please let this man be put to death, because he weakens the hands of the men of war who remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, in speaking such words to them; for this man doesn’t seek the welfare of this people, but harm.”
5 Zedekiah the king said, “Behold, he is in your hand; for the king can’t do anything to oppose you.”
6 Then they took Jeremiah and threw him into the dungeon of Malchijah the king’s son, that was in the court of the guard. They let down Jeremiah with cords. In the dungeon there was no water, but mire; and Jeremiah sank in the mire.
7 Now when Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, a eunuch, who was in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the dungeon (the king was then sitting in Benjamin’s gate),
8 Ebedmelech went out of the king’s house, 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 have cast into the dungeon. He is likely to die in the place where he is, because of the famine; for there is no more bread in the city.”
10 Then the king commanded Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, saying, “Take from here thirty men with you, and take up Jeremiah the prophet out of the dungeon, before he dies.”
11 So Ebedmelech took the men with him, and went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took from there rags and worn-out garments, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah.
12 Ebedmelech the Ethiopian said to Jeremiah, “Now put these rags and worn-out garments under your armpits under the cords.” Jeremiah did so.
13 So they lifted Jeremiah up with the cords, and took him up out of the dungeon; and Jeremiah remained in the court of the guard.
14 Then Zedekiah the king sent and took Jeremiah the prophet to himself into the third entry that is in Yahweh’s house. Then the king said to Jeremiah, “I will ask you something. Hide nothing from me.”
15 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I declare it to you, will you not surely put me to death? If I give you counsel, you will not listen to me.”
16 So Zedekiah the king swore secretly to Jeremiah, saying, “As Yahweh lives, who made our souls, I will not put you to death, neither will I give you into the hand of these men who seek your life.”
17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “Yahweh, the God of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you will go out to the king of Babylon’s princes, then your soul will live, and this city will not be burned with fire. You will live, along with your house.
18 But if you will not go out to the king of Babylon’s princes, then this city will be given into the hand of the Chaldeans, and they will burn it with fire, and you won’t escape out of their hand.’ ”
19 Zedekiah the king said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Jews who have defected to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they mock me.”
20 But Jeremiah said, “They won’t deliver you. Obey, I beg you, Yahweh’s voice, in that which I speak to you; so it will be well with you, and your soul will live.
21 But if you refuse to go out, this is the word that Yahweh has shown me:
22 ‘Behold, all the women who are left in the king of Judah’s house will be brought out to the king of Babylon’s princes, and those women will say, “Your familiar friends have turned on you, and have prevailed over you. Your feet are sunk in the mire, they have turned away from you.”
23 They will bring out all your wives and your children to the Chaldeans. You won’t escape out of their hand, but will be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon. You will cause this city to be burned with fire.’ ”
24 Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Let no man know of these words, and you won’t die.
25 But if the princes hear that I have talked with you, and they come to you, and tell you, ‘Declare to us now what you have said to the king; don’t hide it from us, and we will not put you to death; also tell us what the king said to you;’
26 then you shall tell them, ‘I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan’s house, to die there.’ ”
27 Then all the princes came to Jeremiah, and asked him; and he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they stopped speaking with him, for the matter was not perceived.
28 So Jeremiah stayed in the court of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was taken.
World English Bible Classic. Public domain.
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