How was Jeremiah rescued from the cistern where he had been imprisoned?

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Painting by Rembrandt van Rijn showing Jeremiah sitting in a dimly lit cave, head resting on his hand in sorrow, with Jerusalem burning in the background. — Jeremiah *Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem*, oil on panel by Rembrandt, 1630: in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

According to the Book of Jeremiah, the prophet was rescued from an abandoned cistern by an Ethiopian eunuch named Ebed-melech. After Jeremiah had been imprisoned on a charge of desertion during the siege of Jerusalem, Ebed-melech obtained permission from King Zedekiah to intervene. He pulled the prophet from the cistern and moved him to a less confining place of imprisonment.1