Jeremiah 34–36

Chapter 34

A Prophecy against Zedekiah

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

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

³‘^aYou will not escape from his hand, for you will surely be captured and delivered 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 the Lord, O Zedekiah king of Judah! Thus says the Lord 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 the Lord.

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

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

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

⁹that each man should set free his male servant and each man his female servant, a ^aHebrew man or a Hebrew woman; so that ^bno one should keep them, a Jew his brother, in bondage.

¹⁰And all the ^aofficials and all the people obeyed who had entered into the covenant that each man should set free his male servant and each man his female servant, so that no one should keep them any longer in bondage; they obeyed, and set them free.

¹¹But afterward they turned around and took back the male servants and the female servants whom they had set free, and brought them into subjection for male servants and for female servants.

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

¹³“Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘I ^amade a covenant with your forefathers in the day that I ^bbrought them out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, saying,

¹⁴“^aAt the end of seven years each of you shall set free his Hebrew brother who ¹has been sold to you and has served you six years, you shall send him out free from you; but your forefathers ^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 ^bmade a covenant before Me ^cin the house which is called by My name.

¹⁶“Yet you ^aturned and ^bprofaned My name, and each man ¹took back his male servant and each man his female servant whom you had set free according to their desire, and you brought them into subjection to be your male servants and female servants.” ’

¹⁷“Therefore thus says the Lord, ‘You have not obeyed Me in proclaiming ¹release each man to his brother and each man to his neighbor. Behold, I am ^aproclaiming a release to you,’ declares the Lord, ‘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‘I will give the men who have ^atransgressed My covenant, who have not fulfilled the words of the covenant which they made 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—

²⁰I 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‘^aZedekiah king of Judah and his officials I will give into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life, and into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon which has ^bgone away from you.

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

Chapter 35

The Rechabites’ Obedience

¹The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord 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 the Lord, 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 the Lord, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the ^aman of God, which was near the chamber of the officials, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, ^bthe doorkeeper.

⁵Then I set 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‘You shall not build a house, and you shall not sow seed and you shall not plant a vineyard or own one; but in ^atents you shall dwell all your days, that you may live ^bmany days in the land where you ^csojourn.’

⁸“We have ^aobeyed 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 dwell in; and we ^ado not have vineyard or field or seed.

¹⁰“We have only ^adwelt in tents, and have obeyed and have done according to all that ^bJonadab our father commanded us.

¹¹“But when ^aNebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the land, we said, ‘Come and let us ^bgo to Jerusalem before the army of the Chaldeans and before the army of the Arameans.’ So we have dwelt in Jerusalem.”

Judah Rebuked

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

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

¹⁴“The ^awords of Jonadab the son of Rechab, which he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are observed. So they do not drink wine to this day, for they have obeyed their father’s command. But I have spoken to you ^1bagain and again; yet you have ^cnot listened to Me.

¹⁵“Also I have sent to you all My ^aservants the prophets, sending them ¹again and again, saying: ‘^bTurn now every man from his evil way and amend your deeds, and ^cdo not go after other gods to worship them. Then you will ^ddwell in the land which I have given to you and to your forefathers; but you have not ^einclined your ear or listened to Me.

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

¹⁷“Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, ^aI am bringing on Judah and on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the disaster that I have pronounced 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 the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have ^aobeyed the command of Jonadab your father, kept all his commands and done according to all that he commanded you;

¹⁹therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Jonadab the son of Rechab ^ashall not lack a man to ^bstand before Me ¹always.” ’ ”

Chapter 36

Jeremiah’s Scroll Read in the Temple

¹In the ^afourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

²“Take a ^1ascroll 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 calamity which I plan to 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 the Lord which He had spoken to him.

⁵Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, “I am ^1arestricted; I cannot go into the house of the Lord.

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

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

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

⁹Now in the ^afifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ^bninth month, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who ^ccame from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem proclaimed a ^dfast before the Lord.

¹⁰Then Baruch read from the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the Lord in the ^achamber of ^bGemariah the son of Shaphan the ^cscribe, in the upper court, at the ^dentry of the New Gate of the Lord’s house, to all the people.

¹¹Now when ^aMicaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard all the words of the Lord from the book,

¹²he went down to the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber.…