³⁹ Thus I am ^(A)weak today, though anointed king; and these men ^(B)the sons of Zeruiah are too difficult for me. ^(C)May Yahweh repay the evildoer according to his evil.”

⁵ So King Zedekiah said, “Behold, he is in your ^[a]hands; for the king ^(A)can do nothing against you.”

⁷ All the ^(A)commissioners of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the high officials and the governors have ^(B)counseled together that the king should establish a statute and enforce an injunction that anyone who seeks to make a petition ^[a]to any god or man besides you, O king, for thirty days, shall ^(C)be cast into the lions’ ^[b]den.