Jeremiah 34
34
Jeremiah Warns Zedekiah
1 #
2 K 25.1-11; 2 Ch 36.17-21. King Nebuchadnezzar#34.1 Nebuchadnezzar: See the note at 21.2. had a large army made up of people from every kingdom in his empire. He and his army were attacking Jerusalem and all the nearby towns, when the Lord told me 2to say to King Zedekiah:#34.2 Zedekiah: See the note at 1.3.
I am the Lord, and I am going to let Nebuchadnezzar capture this city and burn it down. 3You will be taken prisoner and brought to Nebuchadnezzar, and he will speak with you face to face. Then you will be led away to Babylonia.
4Zedekiah, I promise that you won't die in battle. 5You will die a peaceful death. People will mourn when you die, and they will light bonfires in your honor, just as they did for your ancestors, the kings who ruled before you.
6I went to Zedekiah and told him what the Lord had said. 7Meanwhile, the king of Babylonia was trying to break through the walls of Lachish, Azekah, and Jerusalem, the only three towns of Judah that had not been captured.
The People Break a Promise
8-10King Zedekiah,#34.8-10 Zedekiah: See the note at 1.3. his officials, and everyone else in Jerusalem made an agreement to free all Hebrew#34.8-10 Hebrew: An earlier term for Israelite and Jewish. men and women who were slaves. No Jew would keep another as a slave. And so, all the Jewish slaves were given their freedom.
11But those slave owners changed their minds and forced their former slaves back into slavery.
12That's when the Lord told me to say to the people:
13I am the Lord God of Israel, and I made an agreement with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, where they had been slaves. 14#Ex 21.2; Dt 15.12. As part of this agreement, you must let a Hebrew slave go free after six years of service.
Your ancestors did not obey me, 15-16but you decided to obey me and do the right thing by setting your Hebrew slaves completely free. You even went to my temple, and in my name you made an agreement to set them free. But you have abused my name, because you broke that agreement and forced your former slaves back into slavery.
17You have disobeyed me by not giving your slaves their freedom. So I will give you freedom—the freedom to die in battle or from disease or hunger. I will make you disgusting to all other nations on earth.
18You asked me to be a witness when you made the agreement to set your slaves free. And as part of the ceremony you cut a calf into two parts, then walked between the parts. But you people of Jerusalem have broken that agreement as well as my agreement with Israel. So I will do to you what you did to that calf. 19-20I will let your enemies take all of you prisoner, including the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the royal officials, the priests, and everyone else who walked between the two parts of the calf. These enemies will kill you and leave your bodies lying on the ground as food for birds and wild animals.
21-22These enemies are King Nebuchadnezzar#34.21,22 Nebuchadnezzar: See the note at 21.2. of Babylonia and his army. They have stopped attacking Jerusalem, but they want to kill King Zedekiah and his high officials. So I will command them to return and attack again. This time they will conquer the city and burn it down, and they will capture Zedekiah and his officials. I will also let them destroy the towns of Judah, so that no one can live there any longer.
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Yirmeyahu (Jeremiah) 34
34
1The word which came to Yirmeyahu from יהוה, when Neḇuḵaḏnetstsar sovereign of Baḇel and all his army, and all the reigns of the earth under his rule, and all the people, fought against Yerushalayim and all its cities, saying,
2“Thus said יהוה the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, ‘Go and speak to Tsiḏqiyahu sovereign of Yehuḏah and say to him, “Thus said יהוה, ‘See, I am giving this city into the hand of the sovereign of Baḇel. And he shall burn it with fire,
3and you shall not escape out of his hand, but certainly be taken and given into his hand. And your eyes shall see the eyes of the sovereign of Baḇel, and his mouth shall speak with your mouth, and you shall go to Baḇel.’” ’
4“But hear the word of יהוה, O Tsiḏqiyahu sovereign of Yehuḏah! Thus said יהוה concerning you, ‘You shall not die by the sword.
5In peace you are to die, and as in the burnings of spices for your fathers, the former sovereigns who were before you, so they shall burn spices for you and lament for you, saying, “Alas, master!” ’ For I have spoken the word,” declares יהוה.
6And Yirmeyahu the prophet spoke all these words to Tsiḏqiyahu the sovereign of Yehuḏah in Yerushalayim,
7while the sovereign of Baḇel’s army was fighting against Yerushalayim and all the cities of Yehuḏah that were left, against Laḵish and Azĕqah. For only these walled cities remained of the cities of Yehuḏah.
8The word which came to Yirmeyahu from יהוה, after Sovereign Tsiḏqiyahu had made a covenant with all the people who were at Yerushalayim to proclaim release to them:
9that everyone was to set free his male and female slave, the Hebrew man and the Hebrew woman, no one was to keep a Yehuḏi, his brother, enslaved.
10And when all the heads and all the people who had come into the covenant heard that each one was to set free his male and female slaves, and not keep them enslaved any longer, they obeyed and released them.
11But afterward they changed their minds and made the male and female slaves return, whom they had set free, and brought them into subjection as male and female slaves.
12Therefore the word of יהוה came to Yirmeyahu from יהוה, saying,
13“Thus said יהוה the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl, ‘I Myself made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Mitsrayim, out of the house of bondage, saying,
14“At the end of seven years each one should set free his Hebrew brother, who has been sold to him. And when he has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you.” But your fathers did not obey Me nor incline their ear.
15And you recently turned and did what was right in My eyes, each man proclaiming release to his neighbour. And you made a covenant before Me in the house which is called by My Name.
16But you turned back and profaned My Name, and each one of you took back his male and female slaves, whom he had set free, at their pleasure, and brought them into subjection, to be your male and female slaves.’
17“Therefore thus said יהוה, ‘You have not obeyed Me in proclaiming release, each one to his brother and each one to his neighbour. See, I am proclaiming release to you,’ declares יהוה, ‘to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the scarcity of food! And I shall make you a horror to all reigns of the earth.
18And I shall give the men who are transgressing My covenant, who have not established the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between the parts of it:
19the heads of Yehuḏah, and the heads of Yerushalayim, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf.
20And I shall give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life. And their corpses shall be for food to the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth.
21And I shall give Tsiḏqiyahu sovereign of Yehuḏah and his heads into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life, and into the hand of the sovereign of Baḇel’s army that has withdrawn from you.
22See, I am commanding,’ declares יהוה, ‘and shall bring them back to this city, and they shall fight against it and take it and burn it with fire. And I shall make the cities of Yehuḏah a ruin without inhabitant.’ ”
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