“But if you are determined
Not to surrender,
This is what Yahweh
Has shown me.
This is the vision.
All the women
Remaining in the house
Of the king of Judah
Were being led out
To the officials
Of the king of Babylon
Saying.
‘Your trusted friends
Have seduced you.
They have overcome you.
Now that your feet
Are stuck in the mud,
They desert you.’
All your wives,
All your children,
Shall be led out
To the Chaldeans.
You yourself shall not escape
From their hand.
But you shall be seized
By the king of Babylon.
This city shall be burned
With fire.”
Jeremiah told King Zedekiah that Yahweh had sent him a vision of what was going to happen, if he did not surrender to the Babylonians. In this vision, all the women of the household of the king were being brought out to the officials of the Babylonians. These women were saying that their trusted friends had deceived, seduced, and overcome them. Now that their feet were stuck in the mud, as Jeremiah had been in the well, their trusted friends had deserted them. Thus all the Judean wives and children would be were led out to the Chaldeans. The Judean king himself would not escape from the king of Babylon. The city of Jerusalem would be burned with a great fire. This was a grim vision of defeat.
