Zedekiah’s Fears and Jeremiah’s Advice
14 Then Zedekiah the king sent and had Jeremiah the prophet brought to him at the third entrance of the house of the Lord. And the king said to Jeremiah, “I will lask you something. Hide nothing from me.”
15 Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I declare it to you, will you not surely put me to death? And if I give you advice, you will not listen to me.”
16 So Zedekiah the king swore secretly to Jeremiah, saying, “As the Lord lives, mwho made our very souls, I will not put you to death, nor will I give you into the hand of these men who seek your life.”
17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “Thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘If you surely nsurrender 6 oto the king of Babylon’s princes, then your soul shall live; this city shall not be burned with fire, and you and your house shall live. 18 But if you do not 7surrender to the king of Babylon’s princes, then this city shall be given into the hand of the Chaldeans; they shall burn it with fire, and pyou shall not escape from their hand.’ ”
19 And Zedekiah the king said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Jews who have qdefected to the Chaldeans, lest they deliver me into their hand, and they rabuse me.”
20 But Jeremiah said, “They shall not deliver you. Please, obey the voice of the Lord which I speak to you. So it shall be swell with you, and your soul shall live. 21 But if you refuse to 8surrender, this is the word that the Lord has shown me: 22 ‘Now behold, all the twomen who are left in the king of Judah’s house shall be surrendered to the king of Babylon’s princes, and those women shall say:
“Your close friends have 9set upon you
And prevailed against you;
Your feet have sunk in the mire,
And they have 1turned away again.”
23 ‘So they shall surrender all your wives and uchildren to the Chaldeans. vYou shall not escape from their hand, but shall be taken by the hand of the king of Babylon. And you shall cause this city to be burned with fire.’ ”
24 Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Let no one know of these words, and you shall not die. 25 But if the princes hear that I have talked with you, and they come to you and say to you, ‘Declare to us now what you have said to the king, and also what the king said to you; do not hide it from us, and we will not put you to death,’ 26 then you shall say to them, w‘I presented my request before the king, that he would not make me return xto Jonathan’s house to die there.’ ”
27 Then all the princes came to Jeremiah and asked him. And he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they stopped speaking with him, for the conversation had not been heard. 28 Now yJeremiah remained in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken. And he was there when Jerusalem was taken.
About The New King James VersionThe New King James Version is a total update of the 1611 King James Version, also known as the "Authorized Version." Every attempt has been made to maintain the beauty of the original version while updating the English grammar to contemporary style and usage. The result is much better "readability." It is noteworthy that the NKJV is one of the few modern translations still based on the "Western" or "Byzantine" manuscript tradition. This makes the New King James Version an invaluable aid to comparative English Bible study. |
|
Copyright |
New King James Version All Rights reserved The text of the New King James Version (NKJV) may be quoted or reprinted without prior written permission with the following qualifications: (1) up to and including 1,000 verses may be quoted in printed form as long as the verses quoted amount to less than 50% of a complete book of the Bible and make up less than 50% of the total work in which they are quoted; (2) all NKJV quotations must conform accurately to the NKJV text. Any use of the NKJV text must include a proper acknowledgment as follows:
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. However, when quotations from the NKJV text are used in church bulletins, orders of service, Sunday School lessons, church newsletters and similar works in the course of religious instruction or services at a place of worship or other religious assembly, the notice "NKJV" may be used at the end of each quotation. For quotation requests not covered by the above guidelines, write to Thomas Nelson Publishers, Bible Rights and Permissions, P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, TN 37214-1000. |
Support Info | nkjv |