Jeremiah 34

A message for King Zedekiah

¹This message came to Jeremiah from the LORD while Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon was making war on Jerusalem and all its towns, with his whole army and all the kingdoms and peoples of the earth that were under his rule: ²“The LORD, the God of Israel, says this: Go to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him, ‘The LORD says this: I am about to hand this city over to the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down. ³You yourself will not escape from him. You will certainly be captured and handed over to him. You will look the king of Babylon in the eye, and he will speak to you face to face. And you will go to Babylon. ⁴But hear the word of the LORD, Zedekiah king of Judah. The LORD says this about you: You will not die by the sword. ⁵You will die in peace. As spices were burned in honor of your ancestors, the kings who ruled before you, so people will burn spices in your honor and mourn for you, crying, ‘Alas, my lord!’ I have given my word, declares the LORD.’”^a

⁶Jeremiah the prophet told Zedekiah king of Judah all these things in Jerusalem, ⁷while the king of Babylon’s army was attacking Jerusalem and the towns of Judah that were still holding out, Lachish and Azekah. These were the only fortified towns of Judah that remained.

Freed slaves taken back

⁸This message came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah and all the people in Jerusalem had made a covenant to announce freedom, ⁹so that everyone would set free their Hebrew slaves, both men and women, and no one would keep a fellow Judean as a slave. ¹⁰All the officials and all the people who had entered into the covenant agreed to set free their male and female slaves and not keep them as slaves any longer. They obeyed and let them go. ¹¹But afterward they changed their minds. They took back the men and women they had set free and forced them to be their slaves again.

¹²Then the word of the LORD came from the LORD to Jeremiah: ¹³“The LORD, the God of Israel, says this: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I led them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house where they were slaves. I said: ¹⁴‘At the close of every seven years, each of you must release any fellow Hebrew who has been sold to you as a slave. When that person has served you six years, you must send them away free.’ But your ancestors did not listen to me or pay attention. ¹⁵Just now you yourselves turned back and did what is right in my sight: each of you announced freedom for your neighbor, and you made a covenant in my presence in the house that bears my name. ¹⁶But then you turned around and profaned my name. Each of you took back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished, and you forced them to be your slaves again.

¹⁷Therefore the LORD says this: You have not obeyed me by announcing freedom, each of you for your fellow Hebrew and your neighbor. So now I am announcing freedom for you, declares the LORD: freedom to fall by the sword, the plague and the famine. I will make you a horror to every kingdom on earth. ¹⁸As for the people who broke my covenant and did not keep the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will make them like the calf they cut in two and walked between its halves,^{b 19}that is, the officials of Judah and the officials of Jerusalem, the court officers, the priests and all the people of the land who walked between the halves of the calf. ²⁰I will hand them over to their enemies, to those who want them dead, and their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals. ²¹Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials I will hand over to their enemies, to those who want them dead, to the army of the king of Babylon, which has withdrawn from you. ²²I am about to give the order, declares the LORD. I will bring them back to this city, and they will attack it, take it and burn it down. I will turn the towns of Judah into a desolate waste where no one lives.”