King Nebuchadnezzar commanded the Babylonian army outside the gates. His engineers built siege ramps of timber and packed earth against the walls of Jerusalem in 588 b.c. Starvation gripped the city population. Grain stores sat empty while disease spread through the cramped residential quarters. Defenders abandoned their posts along the northern battlements. Royal officials viewed any talk of surrender as treason.
The penalty for such treason played out in the royal compound. Guards dragged the accused prophet Jeremiah to the court of the guard near the palace. This enclosed yard held a deep underground water storage pit owned by Malchiah. Engineers hewed these urban reservoirs directly into the bedrock to catch winter rain. During the prolonged siege, the inhabitants drained every drop of water from this particular holding tank.
Only a thick layer of sediment remained at the bottom of the pit. Guards lowered the prisoner into the dark shaft using rough cords. The man sank deep into the wet sludge. The sheer walls offered no handholds for escape. A captive stuck in this 20-foot hole faced death by exposure and starvation. The physical reality of the pit mirrored a hard truth about human desperation.
A man sinking into cold mud quickly learns the absolute limit of his own strength.
A Cushite palace official named Ebed-Melech understood this absolute limit. He secured permission from King Zedekiah to pull the prisoner from the sludge before death occurred. Ebed-Melech gathered 30 men and a bundle of torn rags. They dropped the padded scrap material down the 20-foot shaft to protect the victim from heavy ropes. The crew hoisted him back to the stone pavement. He survived the pit but remained a prisoner within the guard court while the Babylonian army prepared to breach the city walls.