If Zedekiah kept refusing to give himself up, the Lord promised that all the women in the palace would end up as the property of the enemy officers. It was customary for a conquering king to take over the harem of his defeated foe (cf. 2 Samuel 16:21-22). These women would curse Zedekiah for allowing his friends to mislead him. They would use the words-that Jeremiah here composed or perhaps quoted from a traditional Song of Solomon -about being betrayed and deserted by friends (cf. Jeremiah 20:10; Psalm 41:9; Psalm 69:14; Obadiah 1:7). While the king delayed, his officers would get away. What had happened to Jeremiah physically ( Jeremiah 38:6) would happen to Zedekiah politically, militarily, and spiritually: both were stuck in the mud. [source][source][source]