16. He said, “I swear in the name of the living Lord our Creator that I won't have you killed. No one else can hear what we say, and I won't let anyone kill you.”
17. Then I told him that the Lord had said: “Zedekiah, I am the Lord God All-Powerful, the God of Israel. I promise that if you surrender to King Nebuchadnezzar's officers, you and your family won't be killed, and Jerusalem won't be burnt down.
18. But if you don't surrender, I will let the Babylonian army capture Jerusalem and burn it down, and you will be taken prisoner.”
19. Zedekiah answered, “I can't surrender to the Babylonians. I'm too afraid of the Jews who have already joined them. The Babylonians might hand me over to those Jews, and they would torture me.”
20. I said, “If you will just obey the Lord, the Babylonians won't hand you over to those Jews. You will be allowed to live, and all will go well for you.
21. But the Lord has shown me that if you refuse to obey,
22. then the women of your palace will be taken prisoner by Nebuchadnezzar's officials. And those women will say to you:“Friends you trusted led you astray.Now you're trapped in mud,and those friends you trustedhave all turned away.
23. The Babylonian army will take your wives and children captive, you will be taken as a prisoner to the King of Babylonia, and Jerusalem will be burnt down.”
24. Zedekiah said, “Jeremiah, if you tell anyone what we have talked about, you might lose your life.
25. And I'm sure that if my officials hear about our meeting, they will ask you what we said to each other. They might even threaten to kill you if you don't tell them.
26. So if they question you, tell them you were begging me not to send you back to the prison at Jonathan's house, because going back there would kill you.”
27. The officials did come and question me about my meeting with the king, and I told them exactly what he had ordered me to say. They never spoke to me about the meeting again, since no one had heard us talking.