Jeremiah 38:14-28 King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and had him brought to him at the third entrance to the LORD's temple. The king said to Jeremiah, "I'm going to ask you something, and don't hide anything from me."

VIN⁽ⁱ⁾ ¹⁴ King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and had him brought to him at the third entrance to the LORD's temple. The king said to Jeremiah, "I'm going to ask you something, and don't hide anything from me." ¹⁵ Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I declare it to you, will you not surely put me to death? If I give you counsel, you will not listen to me.” ¹⁶ Then King Zedekiah, in secret, swore an oath to Jeremiah: "As surely as the LORD lives, who gave us this life to live, I won't have you put to death, nor will I hand you over to these men who are seeking to kill you." ¹⁷ Then I told Zedekiah that the LORD, the God of Israel said: "If you surrender to the king of Babylon's officers, your life will be spared, and this city will not be burned down. Both you and your family will be spared. ¹⁸ But if you don't surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city will be given to the Chaldeans, and they'll burn it with fire. You won't escape from their hands.'" ¹⁹ Then King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, "I'm afraid of the Judeans who have gone over to the Chaldeans. The Chaldeans may turn me over to them, and they may treat me harshly." ²⁰ I said: "You will not be handed over to them. I beg you to obey the LORD’s message. Then all will go well with you, and your life will be spared. ²¹ But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the LORD has shown me: ²² Look, all the women who are left in the house of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officers of the king of Babylon, and will say, 'These friends of yours have mislead you and overcome you. Your feet have sunk down into the mire, but they have turned away.' ²³ Then I added: "All your women and children will be taken out to the Babylonians. You will not escape from them. You will be taken prisoner by the king of Babylonia. And this city will be burned to the ground." ²⁴ Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, "Don't let anyone know about these words and you won't die. ²⁵ If the officials hear that I've spoken with you, and they come to you and say, 'Tell us what you said to the king, and what the king said to you; don't hide it from us, and we won't put you to death,' ²⁶ "Just tell them you were begging me not to send you back to prison to die there." ²⁷ When all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him, he replied to them exactly as the king had ordered him. So they stopped speaking with him because the conversation had not been overheard. ²⁸ And Jeremiah stayed in the courtyard of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was captured. And it happened that Jerusalem was captured.