Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 38:11

"So Ebed-melech took the men with him, and went into the house of the king under the treasury, and took thence rags and worn-out garments, and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah." — Jeremiah 38:11 (ASV)

Under the treasury ... —This was obviously what we would call the “lumber-room” of the palace. Nothing could show the acuteness of the prophet’s sufferings more vividly than the precautions that the thoughtful kindness of the Eunuch thus suggested. The pit was so deep that ropes were needed to draw him up, as they had been to let him down, and so that they would not cut into the flesh of Jeremiah’s emaciated form, improvised cushions had to be fastened to the ropes, so that he could rest his armpits on them. He was, however, at last rescued and reinstated in his former position as a prisoner under the king’s protection.

“Clout” in old English was used for a patch of cloth, as distinct from “rags,” which were of linen. So Spenser writes: “His garments nought but many ragged clouts.”