Jeremiah 38:14–39:14

¹⁴And king Sedecias sent, and took Jeremias the prophet to him to the third gate, that was in the house of the Lord: and the king said to Jeremias: I will ask thee a thing, hide nothing from me.

¹⁵Then Jeremias said to Sedecias: If I shall declare it to thee, wilt thou not put me to death? and if I give thee counsel, thou wilt not hearken to me.

¹⁶Then king Sedecias swore to Jeremias, in private, saying: As the Lord liveth, that, made us this soul, I will not put thee to death, nor will I deliver thee into the hands of these men that seek thy life.

¹⁷And Jeremias said to Sedecias: Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: If thou wilt take a resolution and go out to the princes of the king of Babylon, thy soul shall live, and this city shall not be burnt with fire: and thou shalt be safe, and thy house.

¹⁸But if thou wilt not go out to the princes of the king of Babylon, this city shall be delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans, and they shall burn it with fire: and thou shalt not escape out of their hand.

¹⁹And king Sedecias said to Jeremias: I am afraid because of the Jews that are fled over to the Chaldeans: lest I should be delivered into their hands, and they should abuse me.

²⁰But Jeremias answered: They shall not deliver thee: hearken, I beseech thee, to the word of the Lord, which I speak to thee, and it shall be well with thee, and thy soul shall live.

²¹But if thou wilt not go forth, this is the word which the Lord hath shewn me:

²²Behold all the women that are left in the house of the king of Juda, shall be brought out to the princes of the king of Babylon: and they shall say: Thy men of peace have deceived thee, and have prevailed against thee, they have plunged thy feet in the mire, and in a slippery place and they have departed from thee.

²³And all thy wives, and thy children shall be brought out to the Chaldeans, and thou shalt not escape their hands, but thou shalt be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon: and he shall burn this city with fire.

²⁴Then Sedecias said to Jeremias: Let no man know these words, and thou shalt not die.

²⁵But if the princes shall hear that I have spoken with thee, and shall come to thee, and say to thee: Tell us what thou hast said to the king, hide it not from us, and we will not kill thee: and also what the king said to thee:

²⁶Thou shalt say to them: I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not command me to be carried back into the house of Jonathan, to die there.

²⁷So all the princes came to Jeremias, and asked him: and he spoke to them according to all the words that the king had commanded him: and they left him: for nothing had been heard.

²⁸But Jeremias remained in the entry of the prison, until the day that Jerusalem was taken: and it came to pass that Jerusalem was taken.

Chapter 39

In the ninth year of Sedecias king of Juda, in the tenth month, came Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon, and all his army to Jerusalem, and they besieged it.

²And in the eleventh year of Sedecias, in the fourth month, the fifth day of the month, the city was opened.

³And all the princes of the king of Babylon came in, and sat in the middle gate: Neregel, Sereser, Semegarnabu, Sarsachim, Rabsares, Neregel, Serezer, Rebmag, and all the rest of the princes of the king of Babylon.

⁴And when Sedecias the king of Juda and all the men of war saw them, they fled: and they went forth in the night out of the city by the way of the king’s garden, and by the gate that was between the two walls, and they went out to the way of the desert.

⁵But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after them: and they took Sedecias in the plain of the desert of Jericho, and when they had taken him, they brought him to Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon to Reblatha, which is in the land of Emath: and he gave judgment upon him.

⁶And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Sedecias, in Reblatha, before his eyes: and the king of Babylon slew all the nobles of Juda.

⁷He also put out the eyes of Sedecias: and bound him with fetters, to be carried to Babylon.

⁸And the Chaldeans burnt the king’s house, and the houses of the people with fire, and they threw down the wall of Jerusalem.

⁹And Nabuzardan the general of the army carried away captive to Babylon the remnant of the people that remained in the city, and the fugitives that had gone over to him, and the rest of the people that remained.

¹⁰But Nabuzardan the general left some of the poor people that had nothing at all, in the land of Juda, and he gave them vineyards, and cisterns at that time.

¹¹Now Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon had given charge to Nabuzardan the general concerning Jeremias, saying:

¹²Take him, and set thy eyes upon him, and do him no harm: but as he hath a mind, so do with him.

¹³Therefore Nabuzardan the general sent, and Nabuzardan, and Rabsares, and Neregel, and Sereser, and Rebmag, and all the nobles of the king of Babylon,

¹⁴Sent and took Jeremias out of the court of the prison, and committed him to Godolias the son of Ahicam the son of Saphan, that he might go home, and dwell among the people.