² “Thus says Yahweh, ‘The one who stays in this city will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the plague. But the one who goes out to the Chaldeans will live. And his life will be for him as booty, and he will live.’ ³ Thus says Yahweh, ‘Surely this city will be given into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.’”

⁴ Then the officials said to the king, “Please, this man must be killed, because^[a] he is making slack the hands of the soldiers^[b] who are left in this city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking to them words like these, for this man is not seeking for welfare^[c] to this people, but only^[d] for harm.”