²⁴ Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Do not tell anyone that I have been talking to you, or you will die. ²⁵ If the officers find out I talked to you, they will come to you and say, ‘Tell us what you said to King Zedekiah and what he said to you. Don’t ·keep any secrets from us [conceal anything from us]. If you don’t tell us everything, we will kill you.’ ²⁶ If they ask you, tell them, ‘I was ·begging [^Lmaking my pleas for help/supplications/falling before] the king not to ·send [return] me back to Jonathan’s house to die.’”

²⁷ All the officers did come to question Jeremiah. So he told them everything the king had ordered him to say. Then the officers said no more to Jeremiah, because no one had heard what Jeremiah and the king had discussed.