20. Jeremiah said, “You will not be handed over to them. Obey the Lord by doing what I’m telling you. Then everything will go well for you, and you will live.
21. But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the Lord has shown me.
22. All the women who are left in the palace of Judah’s king will be brought out to the officers of the king of Babylon. These women will say:‘Your trusted friends have misled you and used you.Your feet are stuck in the mud, and your friends have deserted you.’
23. “All your wives and children will be brought to the Babylonians. You will not escape from them. You will be captured by the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned down.”
24. Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Don’t let anyone know about this conversation, or you will die.
25. The officials may find out that I’ve been talking with you. They may come to you and say, ‘Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you. Don’t hide anything from us, or we’ll kill you.’
26. If they come to you, say to them, ‘I asked the king not to send me back to Jonathan’s house to die there.’ ”
27. All the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him. He told them exactly what the king had told him to say. So they stopped questioning him, because they hadn’t heard his conversation with the king.
28. Jeremiah stayed in the courtyard of the prison until the day Jerusalem was captured.