The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when Nebuchadnezzar
king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms of the earth
under his dominion and all the peoples were fighting against
Jerusalem and all of its cities: “Thus says the LORD, the God of
Israel: Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and say to him,
‘Thus says the LORD: Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of
the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire. You shall not
escape from his hand but shall surely be captured and delivered
into his hand. You shall see the king of Babylon eye to eye and
speak with him face to face. And you shall go to Babylon.’ Yet hear
the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah! Thus says the LORD
concerning you: ‘You shall not die by the sword. You shall die in
peace. And as spices were burned for your fathers, the former kings
who were before you, so people shall burn spices for you and lament
for you, saying, “Alas, lord!”’ For I have spoken the word,
declares the LORD.”
Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king
of Judah, in Jerusalem, when the army of the king of Babylon was
fighting against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that
were left, Lachish and Azekah, for these were the only fortified
cities of Judah that remained.
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after King Zedekiah
had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to make a
proclamation of liberty to them, that everyone should set free his
Hebrew slaves, male and female, so that no one should enslave a
Jew, his brother. And they obeyed, all the officials and all the
people who had entered into the covenant that everyone would set
free his slave, male or female, so that they would not be enslaved
again. They obeyed and set them free. But afterward they turned
around and took back the male and female slaves they had set free,
and brought them into subjection as slaves. The word of the LORD
came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Thus says the LORD, the God of
Israel: I myself made a covenant with your fathers when I brought
them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying,
‘At the end of seven years each of you must set free the fellow
Hebrew who has been sold to you and has served you six years; you
must set him free from your service.’ But your fathers did not
listen to me or incline their ears to me. You recently repented and
did what was right in my eyes by proclaiming liberty, each to his
neighbor, and you made a covenant before me in the house that is
called by my name, but then you turned around and profaned my name
when each of you took back his male and female slaves, whom you had
set free according to their desire, and you brought them into
subjection to be your slaves.
“Therefore, thus says the LORD: You have not obeyed me by
proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and to his neighbor;
behold, I proclaim to you liberty to the sword, to pestilence, and
to famine, declares the LORD. I will make you a horror to all the
kingdoms of the earth. And the men who transgressed my covenant and
did not keep the terms of the covenant that they made before me, I
will make them like the calf that they cut in two and passed
between its parts—the officials of Judah, the officials of
Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land
who passed between the parts of the calf. And I will give them into
the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their
lives. Their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and
the beasts of the earth. And Zedekiah king of Judah and his
officials I will give into the hand of their enemies and into the
hand of those who seek their lives, into the hand of the army of
the king of Babylon which has withdrawn from you. Behold, I will
command, declares the LORD, and will bring them back to this city.
And they will fight against it and take it and burn it with fire. I
will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.”
