Rags Under the Ropes

The officers of Tzidkiyahu could no longer bear Yirmiyahu's words. Whoever stays in this city will die, he was telling the people, and whoever goes out to the Chaldeans will live. He is weakening the soldiers, they told the king; he must die. The king answered: he is in your hands. They let Yirmiyahu down on ropes into the pit of Malkiyahu in the courtyard of the guard. There was no water in it, only mud, and Yirmiyahu sank into the mud.

In the palace served a Kushi named Eved-Melech. He went to the king, who was sitting at the gate of Binyamin, and said: these men have done evil to the prophet; he will die of hunger down there, for there is no bread left in the city. The king told him to take thirty men and lift Yirmiyahu out before he died. Eved-Melech first went to a storeroom below the treasury and gathered worn-out rags and old clothes. He let them down on the ropes and called: put the rags under your arms, beneath the ropes. Yirmiyahu did so, and they drew him up out of the pit.

The Midrash adds what the verses leave out. When Eved-Melech first called down, Yirmiyahu did not answer, afraid it was one of his tormentors. Eved-Melech tore his clothes and wept, thinking the prophet was dead, and only his weeping told Yirmiyahu that a friend had come. Chazal explain why he is called the Kushi: just as a Kushi stands out by his skin, he stood out by his good deeds among all the king's servants. Before the city fell, Hashem sent Yirmiyahu to tell him: on that day I will save you, because you trusted in Me.