Secrecy Protects the Meeting until Jerusalem Falls

Let no man know of these words, and thou shalt not die

Then said Zedekiah unto Jeremiah, Let no man know of these words, and thou shalt not die. If the princes hear that I have talked with thee, and they come and say, Declare unto us now what thou hast said unto the king, hide it not from us and we will not put thee to death; also what the king said unto thee:

Then 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. The cover story is a true petition already made, not a full transcript of the oracle.

Jeremiah stays in the court of the prison until the day Jerusalem is taken

Then came all the princes unto Jeremiah, and asked him: and he told them according to all these words that the king had commanded. So they left off speaking with him; for the matter was not perceived. So Jeremiah abode in the court of the prison until the day that Jerusalem was taken: and he was there when Jerusalem was taken.

Protective withholding under coercion is not a license for routine deception or for leaders' unaccountable secrecy. The unit shows a threatened man surviving until the city's fall. It does not make concealment a lifestyle, and it does not make Zedekiah's secrecy wise policy.