Verse Lens · Context pointer
Jeremiah 38:2 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 2. 2Thus saith the LORD, He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live; for he shall have his life for a prey, and shall live.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Role in This Section
The narrated crisis and constrained human response introduces or commands “Thus saith the LORD, He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine…” at Jeremiah 38:2 as “Officials Lower Jeremiah into a Muddy Cistern” develops.
Read It With
- Jeremiah 38:1–6
Read Jeremiah 38:2 with 38:1–6. By itself, “Thus saith the LORD, He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine…” can be detached from the speaker, addressee, date, imperial horizon, poetic movement, or outcome that gives it force. The complete unit establishes: Leaders treat Jeremiah's surrender message as military demoralization, gain weak royal consent, and imprison him in a waterless pit where he sinks in mud.
Why It Needs Context
The verse is a premise, action, image, response, or transition within Jeremiah 38:1–6, not an independent maxim. The narrated crisis and constrained human response introduces or commands “Thus saith the LORD, He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine…” at Jeremiah 38:2 as “Officials Lower Jeremiah into a Muddy Cistern” develops.
Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Jeremiah 38:1–6 — Officials Lower Jeremiah into a Muddy CisternSources used for this context pointer
How certain is this explanation? strong
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Jeremiah 38:1–6, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Jeremiah
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2; fixed commit
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a critical apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Jer.xml, OSIS 38:1–6
Open the fixed Hebrew Jeremiah file ↗