Jeremiah 34–36

CHAPTER 34

A Prophecy Against Zedekiah

¹The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, when ^aNebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his military force, with ^ball the kingdoms of the earth that were under his ¹dominion and all the peoples, were fighting against Jerusalem and against all its cities, saying,

²“Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘^aGo and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and say to him: “Thus says Yahweh, ‘Behold, ^bI am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and ^che will burn it with fire.

³‘^aAnd you will not escape from his hand, for you will surely be seized and given into his hand; and you will ^bsee the king of Babylon eye to eye, and he will speak with you ¹face to face, and you will go to Babylon.’”’

⁴“Yet hear the word of Yahweh, O Zedekiah king of Judah! Thus says Yahweh concerning you, ‘You will not die by the sword.

⁵‘You will die in peace; and as spices were burned for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so they will ^aburn spices for you; and ^bthey will lament for you, “Alas, lord!” ’ For I have spoken the word,” declares Yahweh.

⁶Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke ^aall these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem

⁷when the military force of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were left, that is, ^aLachish and ^bAzekah, for they alone remained as ^cfortified cities among the cities of Judah.

⁸The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh after King Zedekiah had ^acut a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to ^bproclaim ¹release to them:

⁹that each man should let his male slave go free and each man his female slave, a ^aHebrew man or a Hebrew woman, so that ^bno one should enslave them, each being a Jew, his brother.

¹⁰And all the ^aofficials and all the people obeyed who had entered into the covenant that each man should let his male slave go free and each man his female slave, so that no one should enslave them any longer; they obeyed and let them go free.

¹¹But afterwards they turned around and returned to themselves the male slaves and the female slaves, whom they had let go as free, and subdued them to be male slaves and female slaves.

¹²Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,

¹³“Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘I ^acut a covenant with your fathers in the day that I ^bbrought them out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery, saying,

¹⁴“^aAt the end of seven years each of you shall let his Hebrew brother go who ¹has been sold to you and has served you six years, and you shall let him go to be free from you; but your fathers ^bdid not obey Me or incline their ear to Me.

¹⁵“Although recently you had turned and ^adone what is right in My sight, each man proclaiming ¹release to his neighbor, and you had ^bcut a covenant before Me ^cin the house which is called by My name.

¹⁶“Yet you ^aturned and ^bprofaned My name, and each man ¹returned to themselves his male slave and each man his female slave whom you had let go as free according to their desire, and you subdued them to be your male slaves and female slaves.” ’

¹⁷“Therefore thus says Yahweh, ‘You have not obeyed Me in proclaiming ¹release each man to his brother and each man to his neighbor. Behold, I am ^aproclaiming a ²release to you,’ declares Yahweh, ‘to the ^bsword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you a ^cterror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

¹⁸‘And I will give the men who have ^atrespassed against My covenant, who have not established the words of the covenant which they cut before Me, when they ^bcut the calf in two and passed between its parts—

¹⁹the ^aofficials of Judah and the officials of Jerusalem, the court officers and the priests and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf—

²⁰And I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who ^aseek their life. And their ^bdead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.

²¹‘^aAnd as for Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials, I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life and into the hand of the military force of the king of Babylon which has ^bgone away from you.

²²‘Behold, I am going to command,’ declares Yahweh, ‘and I will cause them to return to this city; and they will fight against it and ^acapture it and burn it with fire; and I will make the cities of Judah a ^bdesolation ^cwithout inhabitant.’”

CHAPTER 35

The Rechabites Listen to Jonadab

¹The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh in the days of ^aJehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,

²“Go to the house of the ^aRechabites and speak to them and bring them into the house of Yahweh, into one of the ^bchambers, and give them wine to drink.”

³Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons and the whole house of the Rechabites,

⁴and I brought them into the house of Yahweh, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the ^aman of God, which was beside the chamber of the officials, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, ^bthe doorkeeper.

⁵Then I put before the ¹men of the house of the Rechabites pitchers full of wine and cups; and I said to them, “^aDrink wine!”

⁶But they said, “We will not drink wine, for ^aJonadab the son of ^bRechab, our father, commanded us, saying, ‘You shall ^cnot drink wine, you or your sons, forever.

⁷‘And you shall not build a house, and you shall not sow seed, and you shall not plant a vineyard or own one; but ^atents you shall inhabit all your days, that you may live ^bmany days in the land where you ^csojourn.’

⁸“So we have ^alistened to the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, not to drink wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters,

⁹nor to build ourselves houses to inhabit; and we ^ado not have vineyard or field or seed.

¹⁰“We have only ^ainhabited tents and have listened and have done according to all that ^bJonadab our father commanded us.

¹¹“But it happened that when ^aNebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the land, we said, ‘Come, let us ^bcome to Jerusalem before the military force of the Chaldeans and before the military force of the Arameans.’ So we have inhabited Jerusalem.”

Yahweh Warns of Judah’s Discipline

¹²Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah, saying,

¹³“Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Go and say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, “^aWill you not receive discipline by listening to My words?” declares Yahweh.

¹⁴“The ^awords of Jonadab the son of Rechab, which he commanded his sons, not to drink wine, are established. So they do not drink wine to this day, for they have listened to their father’s command. But I have spoken to you, ^brising up early and speaking; yet you have ^cnot listened to Me.

¹⁵“Also I have sent to you all My ^aslaves the prophets, rising up early and sending, saying: ‘^bTurn now every man from his evil way and make good your deeds, and ^cdo not walk after other gods to ¹serve them. Then you will ^dinhabit the land which I have given to you and to your fathers; but you have not ^einclined your ear or listened to Me.

¹⁶‘Indeed, the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have ^aestablished the command of their father which he commanded them, but this people has not listened to Me.’”’

¹⁷“Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, ^aI am bringing on Judah and on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the harmful evil that I have spoken against them because I ^bspoke to them but they did not listen, and I have called them but they did not answer.’”

¹⁸Then Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, “Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have ^alistened to the command of Jonadab your father, kept all his commands, and done according to all that he commanded you,

¹⁹therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Jonadab the son of Rechab ^ashall not have a man cut off from ^bstanding before Me ¹always.” ’ ”

CHAPTER 36

Jeremiah’s Scroll Read in the Temple

¹Now it happened that in the ^afourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,

²“Take a ^ascroll of a book and write on it all the ^bwords which I have spoken to you concerning ^cIsrael and concerning Judah and concerning all the ^dnations, from the ^eday I first spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day.

³“^aPerhaps the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I devise ¹to bring on them, in order that every man will ^bturn from his evil way; then I will ^cforgive their iniquity and their sin.”

⁴Then Jeremiah called ^aBaruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote on a ^1bscroll ²at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of Yahweh which He had spoken to him.

⁵And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, “I am ^1aconfined; I cannot go into the house of Yahweh.

⁶“So you shall go and ^aread from the scroll, which you have ^bwritten ¹at my dictation, the words of Yahweh ²in the hearing of the people in the house of Yahweh on a ^cfast day. And also you shall read them in the hearing of all the people of Judah who come from their cities.

⁷“^aPerhaps their supplication will ¹come before Yahweh, and everyone will turn from his evil way, for ^bgreat is the anger and the wrath that Yahweh has spoken against this people.”

⁸So Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, ^areading from the book the words of Yahweh in the house of Yahweh.

⁹Now it happened in the ^afifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ^bninth month, that all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who ^ccame from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem called for a ^dfast before Yahweh.

¹⁰Then Baruch read from the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of Yahweh in the ^achamber of ^bGemariah the son of Shaphan the ^cscribe, in the upper court, at the ^dentry of the New Gate of the house…