Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G Messagethen tell them: "I was pleading with the king not to send me back to Jonathan's house to die there."'
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.Gthen say to them: "I was presenting my plea before the king, that he would not send me back to the house of Yonatan to die there."'
KJV
King James VersionThen thou shalt say unto them, I presented my supplication before the king, that he would not cause me to return to Jonathan's house, to die there.
BSB
Berean Standard Biblethen tell them, ‘I was presenting to the king my petition that he not return me to the house of Jonathan to die there.’”
Footnotes
Jeremiah's agreed cover story is a selective truth—he had indeed made exactly this appeal (cf. 37:20)—but it withholds the entire prophetic exchange about Zedekiah's fate. The narrator neither condemns nor endorses the concealment; it simply stands. Some interpreters see prudent guardianship of what was holy; others note the bitter irony that the truth Zedekiah is so desperate to suppress will unfold with terrible precision in the very next chapter. FOG and FOG Message handle the verse identically, allowing the moral tension to stand without resolution.