Jeremiah 38:14-28

14Then King Zedekiah 1sent word and 2had Jeremiah the prophet brought to him at the third entrance that is in the house of the Lord; and the king said to Jeremiah, “I am going to 3ask you something; do not hide anything from me.” 15And Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “4If I tell you, will you not certainly put me to death? Besides, if I give you advice, you will not listen to me.” 16But King Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah in 5secret, saying, “As the Lord lives, who made this 67life for us, I certainly will not put you to death, nor will I hand you over to 8these men who are seeking your 9life.”

17So Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what the Lord 10God of armies, the 11God of Israel says: ‘If you will indeed 12surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then 13you will live, this city will not be burned with fire, and you and your household will 14survive. 18But if you do 15not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city 16will be handed over to the Chaldeans; and they will burn it with fire, and 17you yourself will not escape from their hands.’” 19Then King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am 18in fear of the Jews who have 19deserted to the Chaldeans, for they may hand me over to them, and they will 20abuse me.” 20But Jeremiah said, “They will not turn you over. Please 2122obey the Lord in what I am saying to you, so that it may go 23well for you and 2425you may live. 21But if you keep refusing to surrender, this is the word which the Lord has shown me: 22‘Behold, all of the 26women who have been left in the palace of the king of Judah are going to be brought out to the officers of the king of Babylon; and those women will say, “27Your close friends Have misled and overpowered you; While your feet were sunk in the mire, They turned back.” 23They are also going to bring out all your wives and your 28sons to the Chaldeans, and 29you yourself will not escape from their hand, but will be seized by the hand of the king of Babylon, and 30this city will be burned with fire.’”

24Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Let no one know about these words, and you will not die. 25But if the 31officials hear that I have talked with you and come to you and say to you, ‘Tell us now what you said to the king and what the king said to you; do not hide it from us and we will not put you to death,’ 26then you are to say to them, ‘I was 32presenting my plea before the king, not to make me return to the house of Jonathan to die there.’” 27Then all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him. So he reported to them in accordance with all these words which the king had commanded; and they stopped speaking with him, since the 33conversation had not been overheard. 28So Jeremiah 34stayed in the courtyard of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was captured.