The account of the fall of Jerusalem ends with attention coming back to Ebed-melech who had intervened to rescue Jeremiah from certain death under Zedekiah’s rule (Jeremiah 38:1–13). The Lord has a message for Ebed-melech which came to Jeremiah while he was in the court of the guard shortly after Ebed-melech had pulled him out of the cistern. The message has probably been placed here in the narrative to show that Ebed-melech had survived the invasion with Jeremiah and that the Lord fulfilled the promise he made to Ebed-melech1. The Lord’s message to Ebed-melech is that he will keep his promise of sending judgment on Jerusalem, but he will deliver Ebed-melech from the invasion. His life would be spared because he had put his trust in the Lord when he risked his own life to save the Lord’s prophet. Ebed-melech is presented as one of the very few who had listened to what the Lord was saying through Jeremiah and trusted the Lord with his life.
16 “Go, and say to Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will fulfill my words against this city for harm and not for good, and they shall be accomplished before you on that day.