Jeremiah 38:14-28

New American Standard Bible

Zedekiah Seeks an Answer from God

¹⁴ Then King Zedekiah ^(A)sent word and ^[a]had 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 ^(B)ask you something; do not hide anything from me.” ¹⁵ And Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “^(C)If I tell you, will you not certainly put me to death? Besides, if I give you advice, you will not listen to me.” ¹⁶ But King Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah in ^(D)secret, saying, “As the Lord lives, who made this ^[b](E)life for us, I certainly will not put you to death, nor will I hand you over to ^(F)these men who are seeking your ^[c]life.”

¹⁷ So Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what the Lord ^(G)God of armies, the ^(H)God of Israel says: ‘If you will indeed ^(I)surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then ^[d]you will live, this city will not be burned with fire, and you and your household will ^[e]survive. ¹⁸ But if you do ^(J)not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city ^(K)will be handed over to the Chaldeans; and they will burn it with fire, and ^(L)you yourself will not escape from their hands.’” ¹⁹ Then King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am ^(M)in fear of the Jews who have ^(N)deserted to the Chaldeans, for they may hand me over to them, and they will ^(O)abuse me.” ²⁰ But Jeremiah said, “They will not turn you over. Please ^[f](P)obey the Lord in what I am saying to you, so that it may go ^(Q)well for you and ^[g](R)you may live. ²¹ But if you keep refusing to surrender, this is the word which the Lord has shown me: ²² ‘Behold, all of the ^(S)women 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,

²³ They are also going to bring out all your wives and your ^(T)sons to the Chaldeans, and ^(U)you yourself will not escape from their hand, but will be seized by the hand of the king of Babylon, and ^(V)this city will be burned with fire.’”

²⁴ Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Let no one know about these words, and you will not die. ²⁵ But if the ^(W)officials 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,’ ²⁶ then you are to say to them, ‘I was ^(X)presenting my plea before the king, not to make me return to the house of Jonathan to die there.’” ²⁷ Then 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 ^[i]conversation had not been overheard. ²⁸ So Jeremiah ^(Y)stayed in the courtyard of the guard until the day that Jerusalem was captured.