Bible Strands
Jeremiah 38:6
So they took Jeremiah and dropped him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s 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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The court officials take Jeremiah and drop him into a cistern after King Zedekiah yields authority to them, stating he can do nothing to stop them. This occurs while the king remains at the Gate of Benjamin, leaving the prophet in the hands of his opponents.
The words — The Hebrew verbs וַ/יַּשְלִ֨כוּ (va/i.yash.Li.khu, "and they threw/dropped") and הַ/בּ֣וֹר (ha./Bor, "the cistern") describe the physical act of casting Jeremiah into a waterless pit. These terms mark the transition from verbal threat to concrete imprisonment.
The thread — The imagery of sinking into mud or deep waters recurs in Psalms 69:2 and Psalms 69:14, where the psalmist pleads for deliverance from mire and flood. Jeremiah 37:21 also records an earlier royal order to confine Jeremiah in the courtyard of the guard.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition of how institutional power abandons a prophet to a pit of mud when political authority withdraws protection. It asks the reader to observe the concrete reality of confinement before seeking theological rescue.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchiah the son of Hammelech, that was in the court of the prison: and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire: so Jeremiah sunk in the mire.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 37:21 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.
- Psalms 69:2 I have sunk into the miry depths, where there is no footing; I have drifted into deep waters, where the flood engulfs me.
- Psalms 69:14 Rescue me from the mire and do not let me sink; deliver me from my foes and out of the deep waters.
- Jeremiah 37:16 So Jeremiah went into a cell in the dungeon and remained there a long time.
- Jeremiah 38:22 All the women who remain in the palace of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officials of the king of Babylon, and those women will say: ‘They misled you and overcame you—those trusted friends of yours. Your feet sank into the mire, and they deserted you.’
- Genesis 37:24 and they took him and threw him into the pit. Now the pit was empty, with no water in it.
- Psalms 40:2 He lifted me up from the pit of despair, out of the miry clay; He set my feet upon a rock, and made my footsteps firm.
- Psalms 109:5 They repay me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
- Lamentations 3:52 Without cause my enemies hunted me like a bird.
- Zechariah 9:11 As for you, because of the blood of My covenant, I will release your prisoners from the waterless pit.