Jeremiah 34
34
Zedekiah Is Warned
1Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and all his armies were fighting against Jerusalem. They were also fighting against all the towns around it. All the kingdoms and nations Nebuchadnezzar ruled over were helping him. At that time a message from the Lord came to Jeremiah. The Lord said, 2“I am the Lord, the God of Israel. Go to Zedekiah, the king of Judah. Tell him, ‘The Lord says, “I am about to hand this city over to the king of Babylon. He will burn it down. 3You will not escape from his power. You will certainly be captured. You will be handed over to him. You will see the king of Babylon with your own eyes. He will speak with you face to face. And you will go to Babylon.
4“ ‘ “But listen to the Lord’s promise to you, Zedekiah king of Judah. I say that you will not be killed by a sword. 5You will die in a peaceful way. People made fires to honor the kings who died before you. In the same way, they will make a fire in your honor. They will mourn for you. They will say, ‘My poor master!’ I myself make this promise,” announces the Lord.’ ”
6Then Jeremiah the prophet told all this to King Zedekiah in Jerusalem. 7At that time Nebuchadnezzar’s armies were fighting against Jerusalem. They were also fighting against Lachish and Azekah. These two cities were still holding out. They were the only cities left in Judah that had high walls around them.
The People Set Their Slaves Free
8A message from the Lord came to Jeremiah. King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem. He had told them to set their Hebrew slaves free. 9All of them had to do this. That applied to male and female slaves alike. No one was allowed to hold another Hebrew as a slave. 10So all the officials and people entered into this covenant. They agreed to set their male and female slaves free. They agreed not to hold them as slaves anymore. Instead, they set them free. 11But later they changed their minds. They took back the people they had set free. They made them slaves again.
12Then a message from the Lord came to Jeremiah. 13The Lord is the God of Israel. He says, “I made a covenant with your people of long ago. I brought them out of Egypt. That is the land where they were slaves. I said, 14‘Every seventh year you must set your people free. Each of you must set free all the Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. Let them serve you for six years. Then you must let them go free.’ (Deuteronomy 15:12) But your people of long ago did not listen to me. They did not pay any attention to me. 15Recently you turned away from your sins. You did what is right in my eyes. Each of you set your Hebrew slaves free. You even made a covenant in front of me. You did it in the house where I have put my Name. 16But now you have turned around. You have treated my name as if it were not holy. Each of you has taken back your male and female slaves. You had set them free to go where they wished. But now you have forced them to become your slaves again.”
17So the Lord says, “You have not obeyed me. You have not set your Hebrew slaves free. So now I will set you free,” announces the Lord. “I will set you free to be destroyed by war, plague and hunger. I will make all the kingdoms on earth displeased with you. 18Those people who have broken my covenant will be punished. They have not lived up to the terms of the covenant they made in front of me. When you made that covenant, you cut a calf in two. Then you walked between its pieces. Now I will cut you to pieces. 19That includes all of you who walked between the pieces of the calf. It includes the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials and the priests. It also includes some of the people of the land. 20So I will hand over all those people to their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals.
21“I will hand over King Zedekiah and his officials to their enemies. I will hand them over to those who want to kill them. I will hand them over to the armies of the king of Babylon. They have now pulled back from you. 22But I am going to give an order,” announces the Lord. “I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it. They will capture it and burn it down. And I will completely destroy the towns of Judah. No one will be able to live there.”
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Jeremiah 34
34
Warning to Zedekiah
1The word which came to Jeremiah from Adonai, when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth of his dominion and all the peoples were warring against Jerusalem and its towns, saying,
2thus says Adonai, the God of Israel: “Go, speak to King Zedekiah of Judah and tell him, thus says Adonai: ‘I am about to give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire,
3and you will not escape out of his hand, but will surely be captured and given into his hand. Your eyes will behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he will speak with you mouth to mouth, and you will go to Babylon.”
4Yet hear the word of Adonai, O Zedekiah king of Judah, thus says Adonai concerning you: “You will not die by the sword;
5you will die in peace. As there were burning ceremonies for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so they will burn spices for you, and they will lament for you: ‘Oy , lord!’ For it is a word I have spoken,” declares Adonai.
Covenant Breaking With Slaves
6Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke all these words to King Zedekiah of Judah in Jerusalem,
7when the army of the king of Babylon was warring against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were left—against Lachish and against Azekah, for these alone remained of the cities of Judah as fortified cities.
8The word that came to Jeremiah from Adonai, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people that were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them,
9so that everyone should let his manservant and his maidservant—Hebrew man or Hebrew woman—go free, so that no one should make a slave of a Jew, his brother.
10So all the princes and all the people obeyed, who had entered into the covenant, that everyone would free his manservant and his maidservant and not make them slaves any more—they obeyed, and freed them.
11But afterward they turned around and made the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, return, and brought them back into subjection as servants and as handmaids.”
12So the word of Adonai came to Jeremiah from Adonai, saying,
13thus says Adonai, the God of Israel: “I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying:
14‘At the end of seven years you are to set free every man his brother that is a Hebrew who has been sold to you and has served you six years; you are let him go free from you.’ But your fathers did not obey Me, nor inclined their ear.
15Now you had repented, and had done that which is right in My eyes, by proclaiming liberty everyone to his neighbor. You even had made a covenant before Me in the House where My Name is called.
16But you turned around and profaned My Name, and made everyone his servant and his handmaid, whom you had let go free at their will, return, and you brought them back into subjection, to be your servants and handmaids.”
17Therefore thus says Adonai: “You have not obeyed Me, to proclaim liberty, everyone to his brother and everyone to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim for you a liberty,” declares Adonai, “to the sword, to plague and to famine! So I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
18I will give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts
19—the princes of Judah and the princes of Jerusalem, the officers, the kohanim, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf—
20I will even give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of them who seek their life, and their dead bodies will be for food to the birds of the sky and to the beasts of the earth.
21King Zedekiah of Judah and his princes I will give into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of them who seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, who were withdrawing from you.
22Indeed, I will command,” declares Adonai, “and cause them to return to this city. They will fight against it, capture it, and burn it down with fire; and I will make the cities of Judah a wasteland, with no one living.”
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