38:14 Shortly after this event Zedekiah had Jeremiah brought to him at one of the temple entrances, possibly the king's private entrance (cf. 2 Kings 16:18). He told the prophet that he was going to ask him a question and he wanted a straight answer.
38:15 Jeremiah replied that if he did give the king a straight answer Zedekiah would execute him and disregard what he said.
38:16 The king swore to Jeremiah by the living Lord who gave life that he would neither kill him nor turn him over to his enemies who would kill him. The implication of this oath was that since Yahweh gives life, He could take Zedekiah's life if he proved unfaithful to his word.
38:17 We do not know what Zedekiah's question was, but it must have been, Has the Lord changed His mind? No, He had not, but Zedekiah needed to change his. Jeremiah promised the king on the authority of almighty Yahweh, Israel's God, that if he surrendered to the Babylonian military officers he would live. Furthermore they would not burn down the city, and his whole household would survive. This must have seemed like a very unlikely possibility to Zedekiah since he had proved to be a rebellious vassal of Nebuchadnezzar. Suzerains usually mutilated and killed rebel kings who surrendered to them.498Ironically, Chaldean officials would have spared Zedekiah's life, but Judean officials were seeking to snuff out Jeremiah's life.
38:18 If Zedekiah did not surrender, the Chaldeans would capture the city and burn it, and the king would not escape.
38:19 Zedekiah admitted that he feared the Jews who had already surrendered. He feared that if he surrendered the Babylonians would turn him over to those Jews and they would torture him.
38:20 Jeremiah assured him that what he feared would not happen if he surrendered. He also urged the king to obey the Lord and surrender so things would go well with him.
38:21-22 If Zedekiah kept refusing to give himself up, the Lord promised that all the women in the palace would end up as the property of the enemy officers. It was customary for a conquering king to take over the harem of his defeated foe (cf. 2 Sam. 16:21-22). These women would curse Zedekiah for allowing his friends to mislead him. They would use the words that Jeremiah here composed or perhaps quoted from a traditional song about being betrayed and deserted by friends (cf. 20:10; Ps. 41:9; 69:14; Obad. 7). While the king delayed, his officers would get away. What had happened to Jeremiah physically (v. 6) would happen to Zedekiah politically, militarily, and spiritually: both were stuck in the mud.
38:23 Moreover all the family members of Zedekiah would fall into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar along with himself, and the Babylonian king would burn the city.
38:24 Zedekiah made Jeremiah promise that he would not tell anyone that they had had this conversation. If he kept it a secret, the prophet could live.
38:25-26 If Zedekiah's nobles asked Jeremiah what he and the king had talked about, he was to say that he had asked the king not to send him back to the house of Jonathan because he would die there. He had asked the king not to return him there earlier (37:20).
38:27 Sure enough, the state officials asked Jeremiah about his conversation with the king, but Jeremiah responded as Zedekiah had instructed him. He only told the nobles what was necessary and no more.
38:28 Zedekiah kept his word to Jeremiah who was able to stay in the court of the guardhouse until the city fell to the Babylonians.
