CHAPTER 34
This is the word
that
came
to
Jeremiah
from the LORD
when Nebuchadnezzar
king
of Babylon,
all
his army,
all
the earthly
kingdoms
under his control,
and all
the other nations
were fighting
against
Jerusalem
and all
its surrounding cities:
“This is what
the LORD,
the God
of Israel,
says:
Go,
speak
to
Zedekiah
king
of Judah
and tell
him
that this is what
the LORD
says:
I am about to hand this
city
over to
the king
of Babylon,
and he will burn it down.
As for you,
you will not
escape
his grasp
but
will surely be captured
and handed over to
him.
You will see
the king
of Babylon
eye
to
eye
and speak to him
face
to face;
and you will go
to Babylon.
Yet
hear
the word
of the LORD,
O Zedekiah
king
of Judah.
This is what
the LORD
says
concerning you:
You will not
die
by the sword;
you will die
in peace.
As spices were burned
for your fathers,
the former
kings
who
preceded
you,
so people will burn spices
for you
and lament,
‘Alas,
O master!’
For
I Myself
have spoken
this word,
declares
the LORD."
as the army
of the king
of Babylon
was fighting
against
Jerusalem
and the remaining
cities
of Judah—
against
Lachish
and Azekah.
For
these
were the only remaining
fortified
cities
left
in Judah.
After
King
Zedekiah
had made
a covenant
with
all
the people
in Jerusalem
to proclaim
liberty,
the word
came
to
Jeremiah
from
the LORD
that each man
should free
his Hebrew
slaves,
both male and female,
and no
one
should hold
his fellow
Jew in bondage.
So all
the officials
and all
the people
who
entered
into this covenant
agreed
to free
their menservants
and maidservants
and no longer
to hold them in bondage.
They obeyed
and released them,
but later
they changed their minds
and took back
the menservants
and
maidservants
they had freed,
and they forced them
to become slaves
again.
“This is what
the LORD,
the God
of Israel,
says:
I
made
a covenant
with
your forefathers
when
I brought them out
of the land
of Egypt,
out of the house
of slavery,
saying:
Every
seventh
year,
each
of you must free
his Hebrew
brother
who
has sold himself
to you.
He may serve
you six
years,
but then you must let him go
free.
But your fathers
did not
listen
or incline
their ear.
In this day
you
repented
and did
what pleased
Me;
each
of you proclaimed
liberty
for his neighbor.
You made
a covenant
before Me
in the house
that
bears
My name.
But now you have changed your minds
and profaned
My name.
Each of you
has taken back
the menservants and maidservants
whom
you had set
at liberty
to go wherever they wanted,
and you have again forced
them
to be
your slaves.
Therefore,
this is what
the LORD
says:
You
have not
obeyed
Me;
you have not proclaimed
freedom,
each man
for his brother
and for his neighbor.
So now
I proclaim
freedom
for you,
declares
the LORD—
freedom to fall
by sword,
by
plague,
and by
famine!
I will make you
a horror
to all
the kingdoms
of the earth.
And those who have transgressed
My covenant
and have not
fulfilled
the terms
of the covenant
they made
before Me,
I will treat
like the calf
they cut
in two
in order to pass
between
its pieces.
The officials
of Judah
and Jerusalem,
the court officials,
the priests,
and all
the people
of the land
who passed
between
the pieces
of the calf,
I will hand over
to
their enemies
who seek
their lives.
Their corpses
will become
food
for the birds
of the air
and the beasts
of the earth.
I will hand Zedekiah
king
of Judah
and his officials
over to
their enemies
who seek
their lives,
to the army
of the king
of Babylon
that had withdrawn
from you.
Behold,
I am going to give the command,
declares
the LORD,
and I will bring them back
to
this
city.
They will fight
against it,
capture it,
and burn it down.
And
I will make
the cities
of Judah
a desolation,
without
inhabitant.”