Jeremiah 38:14-28

Later, King Zedekiah summoned me to meet him at his private entrance to the temple of YAHWEH. “I want to ask you for a word,” the king said to me, “and keep nothing back from me.” I answered him, “If I tell you the truth you will put me to death. And if I tell you what you should do, you will not listen to me.” King Zedekiah then secretly promised me with an oath, saying, “As surely as YAHWEH, the giver of this life of ours, lives, I will neither have you put to death nor hand you over to these men who are determined to kill you.” “Well then,” I said to Zedekiah, “YAHWEH, the God of Israel, Commander of Angel Armies says, ‘If you go out and surrender to Nebuchadnezzar’s generals, your life will be spared, and Jerusalem will not be burned down. You and your family will survive. But if you do not surrender to Nebuchadnezzar’s generals, this city will be handed over to the Babylonians, they will burn it down, and I will make sure that you are taken prisoner by your enemies.’ ” King Zedekiah then said to me, “I’m afraid of our own people who have already defected to the Babylonians. They might give me into their hands; then they will torture me!” “That will not happen,” I told him. “Please listen to YAHWEH’s voice in what I say, and then it will go well with you, and your life will be spared. YAHWEH has given me a vision of what will happen to you if you refuse to surrender. I saw all the women left in the king’s palace being led out and given to the generals of the king of Babylon. And they were all taunting you as they were led away: “ ‘Your trusted friends led you astray and overcame you! They told you to resist, as they all ran away! See, now your feet are stuck in the mire, yes, you’re trapped so deep in the mud.’ “Yes, all your wives and children will be marched out into your enemy’s camp. And you, Zedekiah, will be a prisoner in the clutches of the king of Babylon, powerless to escape. And this city will be burned to the ground.” Zedekiah then said to me, “If you wish to keep on living, tell no one about our conversation. If my officials hear that I have been talking to you, and they come and ask you, ‘What did you say to the king and what did the king say to you? You’d better tell us everything, or we will kill you,’ then you must reply, ‘I humbly begged the king not to send me back to the prison at Jonathan’s house to die there.’ ” In fact, the officials did come to interrogate me about my meeting with the king, so I told them exactly what he had instructed me to say. Because no one overheard my conversation with the king, they stopped questioning me at that point. And so, I remained confined in the palace guardhouse until the tragic day Jerusalem was captured.