# Ebed-melech ## Intro Ebed-melech was an African official at the royal court of Judah in the last days before Babylon destroyed Jerusalem. The Bible calls him a Cushite, a man from the Nile lands south of Egypt. When the king's officials threw the prophet Jeremiah into a muddy cistern to die, Ebed-melech went to the king in public, spoke up for the prophet, and pulled him out with ropes, padding them with old rags so they would not cut Jeremiah's arms. God then sent Jeremiah to him with a personal promise: when the city fell, Ebed-melech would be spared, "because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the LORD" ([Jeremiah 39:18](/codex/jeremiah-39-18/), KJV). In a book full of officials who failed, the man who acted rightly was an African. ![A sixteenth-century engraving of men hauling Jeremiah up out of a pit with ropes in a palace courtyard, while King Zedekiah and his officials look on](/codex/assets/ebed-melech-rescues-jeremiah-1585.jpg) *Jeremiah drawn out of the pit at the command of the Ethiopian courtier, engraving from a series on the history of Jeremiah, 1585, Rijksmuseum. CC0 public domain ([Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jeremia_wordt_uit_de_put_gehaald_Van_den_Propheet_Ieremias_%28serietitel%29_Geschiedenis_van_Jeremia_%28serietitel%29_Den_Grooten_Figuer-Bibel_%28serietitel%29,_RP-P-1982-306-267.jpg)), cropped and resized.* ## In full [Jeremiah 38:1-13](/codex/jeremiah-38-1-13/) and 39:15-18 tell Ebed-melech's story. During the Babylonian siege (c. 588-586 BC), four of King Zedekiah's officials, Shephatiah, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jucal son of Shelemiah and Pashhur son of Malchiah, demanded Jeremiah's death because his preaching of surrender was weakening the soldiers. Zedekiah handed him over, and they lowered him into the cistern of Malchiah, where there was no water but mud, and Jeremiah sank in it ([Jeremiah 38:6](/codex/jeremiah-38-6/)). Ebed-melech, "the Ethiopian, one of the eunuchs which was in the king's house" ([Jeremiah 38:7](/codex/jeremiah-38-7/), KJV), heard of it, went to the king where he sat in the Benjamin Gate, and said the officials had done evil and that Jeremiah would die of hunger ([Jeremiah 38:9](/codex/jeremiah-38-9/)). Zedekiah gave him men and ordered the rescue. Ebed-melech took old rags and worn-out clothes from a storeroom of the palace, let them down on ropes, told Jeremiah to put them under his armpits, and drew him up ([Jeremiah 38:10-13](/codex/jeremiah-38-10-13/)). Later, while Jeremiah was still confined in the court of the guard, the word of the LORD came for Ebed-melech: the city would fall, but he would be delivered and not given into the hands of the men he feared. "I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the LORD" ([Jeremiah 39:18](/codex/jeremiah-39-18/), KJV). ## The text, term by term - **The name.** *Ebed-melech* means "servant of the king." It may be his personal name, or it may be a title used as a name. *Ebed ha-melek*, "servant of the king," is a known title of Judean officials and appears on Judean seals of the period. Either way the narrator joins it every time to his origin. See [H5650 - ebed](/codex/h5650-ebed/). - **"The Cushite" (Hebrew *ha-Kushi*, from *Kush*, Strong's H3568).** The gentilic marks him as from Kush, the Nile kingdom south of Egypt. The Septuagint renders it "the Ethiopian," which the KJV follows. By Jeremiah's day Judah had long contact with Kush: a Kushite dynasty had ruled Egypt within living memory (see [Taharqa](/codex/taharqa/)), and Kushite soldiers, traders and officials moved through the region. - **"Eunuch" (Hebrew *saris*, Strong's H5631).** The word can mean a castrated court servant, but it also became a general title for a royal official. Potiphar, who was married, is called a *saris* ([Genesis 39:1](/codex/genesis-39-1/)). Whether Ebed-melech was literally a eunuch cannot be settled from the word alone. - **"Thirty men" ([Jeremiah 38:10](/codex/jeremiah-38-10/)).** The Hebrew text reads thirty. Some commentators emend it to three, since three men would be enough to lift one man from a cistern, but no early witness supports the change. Thirty men may also have been protection against the officials. - **"Because thou hast put thy trust in me."** The reason God gives is faith, not ethnicity, office, or even the rescue itself. The verb (*baṭaḥ*, trust) is the word Jeremiah uses elsewhere for true and false confidence ([Jeremiah 17:5-7](/codex/jeremiah-17-5-7/)). ## The officials who opposed him are known from archaeology Two of the four officials of [Jeremiah 38:1](/codex/jeremiah-38-1/) appear on clay seal impressions (bullae) from the City of David excavations directed by Eilat Mazar: "Jehucal son of Shelemiah" (found 2005) and "Gedaliah son of Pashhur" (found 2008). These are the men whose plot Ebed-melech undid. See [Jeremiah Bullae](/codex/jeremiah-bullae/). The siege itself, and the fall of Jerusalem that followed, are recorded in the Babylonian Chronicles and reflected in the [Lachish Letters](/codex/lachish-letters/); see also [Babylonian Chronicle and the Capture of Jerusalem](/codex/babylonian-chronicle-and-the-capture-of-jerusalem/) and [Nebuchadrezzar](/codex/nebuchadrezzar/). ## Why he matters - **The foreigner who did right when Israel's leaders did wrong.** The Judean princes put the prophet in a pit, the king handed him over, and an African courtier risked his position to save him. The narrative contrast is deliberate. - **Faith named by God.** Few figures in the prophets receive a personal oracle of deliverance. Ebed-melech's matches the one given to Baruch, Jeremiah's scribe ([Jeremiah 45](/codex/jeremiah-45/)), and the reason given is his trust in the LORD. - **A Cushite in the line of the faithful.** He stands with other Cushites the Bible treats with honour: the wife of Moses ([Numbers 12](/codex/numbers-12/); see [Zipporah](/codex/zipporah/)), the messenger to David ([2 Samuel 18:21-32](/codex/2-samuel-18-21-32/)), and the worshippers "from beyond the rivers of Ethiopia" ([Zephaniah 3:10](/codex/zephaniah-3-10/), KJV). - **A pattern repeated in Acts.** Many interpreters note the parallel with the [Ethiopian Eunuch](/codex/ethiopian-eunuch/): a Cushite, a court official, called *saris* in Hebrew and *eunouchos* in Greek, who receives God's word and acts on it. The Ethiopian of [Acts 8](/codex/acts-8/) stands in a line Jeremiah began. - **Compassion in detail.** The rags under the arms are a small, humane touch the narrator chose to keep, the care of a man who thought about the ropes cutting a starving prisoner. ## See also - [Africans in Scripture Argument](/codex/africans-in-scripture-argument/), the cumulative case in which he features - [Ethiopian Eunuch](/codex/ethiopian-eunuch/), the New Testament Cushite official - [Africa in the Table of Nations](/codex/africa-in-the-table-of-nations/), where Cush first appears - [Taharqa](/codex/taharqa/), the Kushite king whose dynasty shaped Judah's world a century earlier - [Jeremiah Bullae](/codex/jeremiah-bullae/), seal impressions of the officials who opposed him - [Lachish Letters](/codex/lachish-letters/), letters from the same final siege - [H5650 - ebed](/codex/h5650-ebed/), the Hebrew word in his name - [Africa and Christianity](/codex/africa-and-christianity/)
## Common questions this page answers **Q: Who was Ebed-melech in the Bible?** He was a Cushite (Ethiopian) official at the court of King Zedekiah who rescued the prophet Jeremiah from a muddy cistern during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem ([Jeremiah 38:7-13](/codex/jeremiah-38-7-13/)). **Q: What does Ebed-melech mean?** It means "servant of the king" in Hebrew. It may have been his name or an official title used as a name. **Q: Was Ebed-melech African?** Yes. The text calls him *ha-Kushi*, "the Cushite," a man from Kush, the Nile kingdom south of Egypt in today's Sudan. Older English Bibles translate it "the Ethiopian." **Q: What reward did God give Ebed-melech?** God promised through Jeremiah that he would survive the fall of Jerusalem and not die by the sword, "because thou hast put thy trust in me" ([Jeremiah 39:15-18](/codex/jeremiah-39-15-18/)). **Q: Was Ebed-melech a eunuch?** The Hebrew word *saris* can mean a eunuch or simply a royal official; Potiphar, a married man, is called a *saris*. The text does not settle which. **Q: Have any people from the Ebed-melech story been found by archaeologists?** Yes. Clay seal impressions naming Jehucal son of Shelemiah and Gedaliah son of Pashhur, two of the officials who had Jeremiah thrown into the cistern, were found in the City of David excavations in 2005 and 2008.