Jeremiah 38:14
Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took Jeremiah the prophet unto him into the third entry that is in the house of the LORD: and the king said unto Jeremiah, I will ask thee a thing; hide nothing from me. Then Zedekiah the king sent, and took Jeremiah the prophet unto him into the third entry that is in the house of the LORD: and the king said unto Jeremiah, I will ask thee a thing; hide nothing from me.
The king sent privately once more for the prophet to tell him faithfully what was God's purpose for Jerusalem. Jeremiah hesitated to speak, fearing that telling the truth would cost him his life and that his counsel would not be heeded even if given. To meet that fear the king swore secretly by the Lord as the maker of life that he would neither put the prophet to death nor hand him over into the hand of those seeking his life.
Thus assured, Jeremiah warned that if the king would go out and surrender to the princes of the king of Babylon his own life would live, he and his household would live, and the city would not be burned with fire. But if he would not go out, the city would be given into the hand of the Chaldeans to be burned, and he himself would not escape. The king answered that he feared the Jews who had already fallen away to the Chaldeans, lest he be delivered into their power to be mocked.
Jeremiah assured him they would not deliver him up, and entreated him to obey the voice of the Lord so that it would be well with him and his life would be spared. The offer shows God's long-suffering mercy still reaching out at that late hour to spare lives and save the city from burning if the king would submit. That mercy was rejected because the king felt he had gone too far to turn back, was afraid of the Jews, afraid of ridicule, afraid for his life, and found it too humiliating to accept the Lord's word spoken through the prophet.