4 The princes said to the king: “Please have this man put to death,+ for this is how he is weakening the morale* of the soldiers who are left in this city, as well as that of all the people, by speaking such words to them. For this man seeks, not the peace of this people, but their calamity.”

6 So they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Mal·chiʹjah the son of the king, which was in the Courtyard of the Guard.+ They let Jeremiah down by ropes. Now there was no water in the cistern, only mud, and Jeremiah began to sink down into the mud.