¹⁷Then I told Zedekiah that the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, had said, “If you surrender to the king of Babylonia’s officers, your life will be spared, and this city will not be burnt down. Both you and your family will be spared. ¹⁸But if you do not surrender, then this city will be handed over to the Babylonians, who will burn it down, and you will not escape from them.”

¹⁹But the king answered, “I am afraid of our countrymen who have deserted to the Babylonians. I may be handed over to them and tortured.”

²⁰I said, “You will not be handed over to them. I beg you to obey the Lord’s message; then all will go well with you, and your life will be spared. ²¹But the Lord has shown me in a vision what will happen if you refuse to surrender. ²²In it I saw all the women left in Judah’s royal palace being led out to the king of Babylonia’s officers. Listen to what they were saying as they went:

‘The king’s best friends misled him,

they overruled him.

And now that

his feet have sunk in the mud, his friends have left him.’ ”

²³Then I added, “All your women and children will be taken out to the Babylonians, and you yourself will not escape from them. You will be taken prisoner by the king of Babylonia, and this city will be burnt to the ground.”

²⁴Zedekiah replied, “Don’t let anyone know about this conversation, and your life will not be in danger. ²⁵If the officials hear that I have talked with you, they will come and ask you what we said. They will promise not to put you to death if you tell them everything. ²⁶Just tell them you were begging me not to send you back to prison to die there.”

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