Jeremiah 38:14–39:14

¹⁴Then King Zedekiah ^asent and ¹had Jeremiah the prophet brought to him at the third entrance that is in the house of the Lord; and the king said to Jeremiah, “I am going to ^bask you something; do not hide anything from me.”

¹⁵Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “^aIf I tell you, will you not certainly put me to death? Besides, if I give you advice, you will not listen to me.”

¹⁶But King Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah in ^asecret saying, “As the Lord lives, who made this ^1blife for us, surely I will not put you to death nor will I give you over to the hand of ^cthese men who are seeking your life.”

Interview with Zedekiah

¹⁷Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “Thus says the Lord ^aGod of hosts, the ^bGod of Israel, ‘If you will indeed ^cgo out to the officers of the king of Babylon, then ¹you will live, this city will not be burned with fire, and you and your household will ²survive.

¹⁸‘But if you will ^anot go out to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city ^bwill be given over to the hand of the Chaldeans; and they will burn it with fire, and ^cyou yourself will not escape from their hand.’ ”

¹⁹Then King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I ^adread the Jews who have ^1bgone over to the Chaldeans, for they may give me over into their hand and they will ^cabuse me.”

²⁰But Jeremiah said, “They will not give you over. Please ^1aobey the Lord in what I am saying to you, that it may go ^bwell with you and ^2cyou may live.

²¹“But if you keep refusing to go out, this is the word which the Lord has shown me:

²²‘Then behold, all of the ^awomen who have been left in the palace of the king of Judah are going to be brought out to the ¹officers of the king of Babylon; and those women will say,

“²Your close friends

Have misled and overpowered you;

While your feet were sunk in the mire,

They turned back.”

²³‘They will also bring out all your wives and your ^asons to the Chaldeans, and ^byou yourself will not escape from their hand, but will be seized by the hand of the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned with fire.’ ”

²⁴Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Let no man know about these words and you will not die.

²⁵“But if the ^aofficials hear that I have talked with you and come to you and say to you, ‘Tell us now what you said to the king and what the king said to you; do not hide it from us and we will not put you to death,’

²⁶then you are to say to them, ‘I was ^apresenting my petition before the king, not to make me return to the house of Jonathan to die there.’ ”

²⁷Then all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him. So he reported to them in accordance with all these words which the king had commanded; and they ceased speaking with him, since the ¹conversation had not been overheard.

²⁸So Jeremiah ^astayed in the court of the guardhouse until the day that Jerusalem was captured.

Chapter 39

Jerusalem Captured

¹¹Now when Jerusalem was captured ^2ain the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came to Jerusalem and laid siege to it;

²in the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the city wall was ^abreached.

³Then all the ^aofficials of the king of Babylon came in and sat down at the ^bMiddle Gate: Nergal-sar-ezer, Samgar-nebu, Sar-sekim the ¹Rab-saris, Nergal-sar-ezer the ²Rab-mag, and all the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon.

⁴When Zedekiah the king of Judah and all the men of war saw them, they ^afled and went out of the city at night by way of the king’s garden through the gate ^bbetween the two walls; and he went out toward the ¹Arabah.

⁵But the army of the ^aChaldeans pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the ^bplains of Jericho; and they seized him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at ^cRiblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him.

⁶Then the ^aking of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah ^bbefore his eyes at Riblah; the king of Babylon also slew all the ^cnobles of Judah.

⁷He then ^ablinded Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him in ^bfetters of bronze to bring him to ^cBabylon.

⁸The Chaldeans also ^aburned with fire the king’s palace and the houses of the people, and they ^bbroke down the walls of Jerusalem.

⁹As for the rest of the people who were left in the city, the ^1adeserters who had gone over to him and ^bthe rest of the people who remained, ^cNebuzaradan the ^dcaptain of the bodyguard carried them into exile in Babylon.

¹⁰But some of the ^apoorest people who had nothing, Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard left behind in the land of Judah, and gave them vineyards and fields ¹at that time.

Jeremiah Spared

¹¹Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave orders about ^aJeremiah through Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard, saying,

¹²“Take him and ¹look after him, and ^ado nothing harmful to him, but rather deal with him just as he tells you.”

¹³So Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard sent word, along with Nebushazban the ¹Rab-saris, and Nergal-sar-ezer the ²Rab-mag, and all the leading officers of the king of Babylon;

¹⁴they even sent and ^atook Jeremiah out of the court of the guardhouse and entrusted him to ^bGedaliah, the son of ^cAhikam, the son of Shaphan, to take him home. So he stayed among the people.