The Lord gave king Zedekiah and the Lord’s people at Jerusalem 11 years to turn back to Him and lean on Him and do right.

 

 

 

 

But they didn’t.

 

 

 

So the Lord let the king of Babylon surround and capture the city.

King Zedekiah and his soldiers tried to sneak out of the city the back way but the king of Babylon’s soldiers saw them and chased them and caught them.

 

The soldiers broke down the walls of Jerusalem and burned the king’s house and all the houses with fire.

 

But the king of Babylon told his soldiers to protect and help Jeremiah and let him go and do whatever he wanted.

 

 

So they took Jeremiah out of the prison in the courtyard and took good care of him.

 

 

 

The king of Babylon was listening to the Lord God at this time

 

 

 

and the Lord’s people weren’t listening to Him.

But before this all happened, the Lord told Jeremiah to tell the Ethiopian man that helped Jeremiah out of the pit of mire: I am going to do what I said to this city, but I will save you and you won’t be hurt. I will give you your life for a prize because you leaned on Me and not the bad ones.

 

 

 

The soldiers let Jeremiah go at a city called Ramah.

 

The captain in charge said to Jeremiah, The Lord has done the bad that He said to this place because they turned away from Him.

 

 

I am letting you go today. If you want, come with us to Babylon and we will do good for you.

 

But if you want, stay here and go wherever you want. You can stay here under the leader that the king of Babylon put in charge.

 

 

 

So the captain gave Jeremiah food and let him go.

The leader who was in charge of the people who were left to stay in the land told the people, Don’t be scared. Gather the fruits and the oil and the wine and live in the cities of the land and do what the king of Babylon tells us.

 

 

So many of the Lord’s people came back to the land from the places where they had been hiding

 

 

 

and the soldiers came in out of the fields.

 

 

 

They all gathered much food and fruit and wine.

 

 

Then a leader from another country sent some of his men to kill the new leader.

 

A man came and told the new leader about it, but he didn’t believe it and didn’t ask the Lord about it. He just said, You are lying!