You must carefully obey at all times the rules, regulations, law, and commandments he wrote down for you. You must not worship other gods.

This is what the king says: &#8216;Don&#8217;t let Hezekiah mislead you, for he is not able to rescue you from my hand!<n id="1" />

Gedaliah took an oath so as to give them and their troops some assurance of safety.<n id="1" /> He said, &#8220;You don&#8217;t need to be afraid to submit to the Babylonian officials. Settle down in the land and submit to the king of Babylon. Then things will go well for you.&#8221;

<p class="bodytext">The king got up in the night and said to his advisers,<n id="1" /> &#8220;I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know we are starving, so they left the camp and hid in the field, thinking, &#8216;When they come out of the city, we will capture them alive and enter the city.&#8217;&#8221;