Jeremiah 34

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.’”