Even when your path takes me through the valley of deepest darkness, fear will never conquer me, for you already have! Your authority is my strength and my peace. The comfort of your love takes away my fear. I’ll never be lonely, for you are near.
So now, please hear me, my lord the king. Let my humble plea come before you. Do not send me back to the dungeon at the court secretary Jonathan’s house. That would be my certain death!”
So King Zedekiah gave orders to confine me to the palace guardhouse. Each day a loaf of bread from the bakery was given to me until all the bread of the city was gone. So I remained there in the palace courtyard.
In fact, the officials did come to interrogate me about my meeting with the king, so I told them exactly what he had instructed me to say. Because no one overheard my conversation with the king, they stopped questioning me at that point.
Nebuzaradan the field general, Nebushazban the chief palace official, and Nergal-Sharezer a high official, along with the other officers of King Nebuchadnezzar,
dispatched some men to bring me from the courtyard of the guardhouse. They entrusted me to the care of Gedaliah son of Ahikam, grandson of Shaphan, and told him to make sure I get home safely. And so, I stayed with the people who remained in Judah.
And the same persecutions and difficulties I have endured, you have also endured. Yes, you know all about what I had to suffer while in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. You’re aware of all the persecution I endured there; yet the Lord delivered me from every single one of them!