1. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia made Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah in the place of Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim.
2. But neither Zedekiah nor his officials nor the people obeyed the message which the Lord had given me.
3. King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah to ask me to pray to the Lord our God on behalf of our nation.
4. I had not yet been put in prison and was still moving about freely among the people.
5. The Babylonian army had been besieging Jerusalem, but when they heard that the Egyptian army had crossed the Egyptian border, they retreated.
6. Then the Lord, the God of Israel, told me