THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH

 

Jeremiah Chapter 34

1 ¶ The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, his entire army, and all the people and kingdoms of the earth under his dominion, fought against Jerusalem, and its surrounding cities, saying,

2 The LORD, the God of Israel says this; Go and speak to Zedekiah the king of Judah, and tell him, The LORD says; Know that I am putting this city in the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire:

3 And you will not escape from his hand, but will certainly be captured, and handed over to him; and you will look into the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he will talk to you face to face, and you will go to Babylon.

4 But hear the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah; The LORD says this about you, You will not die by the sword:

5 But you will die in peace: and they will burn perfumes for you as they did for your fathers, the former kings which were before you; and they will lament you, saying, Oh master! for I have declared it, says the LORD.

6 Then Jeremiah the prophet repeated all these words to Zedekiah the king of Judah in Jerusalem,

7 While the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem, and against the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish, and Azekah: for these were the only fortified cities that remained of the cities of Judah.

8 ¶ This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after king Zedekiah made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them;

9 Everyone was to free his male and female Hebrew slaves; so that none of them would have a fellow Judean serve them as a slave any longer.

10 Now when all the princes, and all the people, who had entered into the covenant, heard that every one must free his manservant, and his maidservant, and no one should enslave them any longer, they complied, and let them go.

11 But afterward they changed their minds, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had freed, to return, and forced them to become servants and handmaids again.

12 Therefore the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

13 The LORD, the God of Israel says; I made a covenant with your fathers at the time that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying,

14 At the end of seven years everyone of you must free his Hebrew brother, who has sold himself to you; and after he has served you for six years, you must let him go free: but your fathers did not listen to me, or pay attention.

15 Just now you turned around, and did what is right in my sight, when each of you told his neighbor that he was free; and you made a covenant before me in the temple that is called by my name:

16 But you changed your minds and polluted my name, for each of you has taken back the servant, and handmaid, that you had freed to live their own lives, and have forced them to be your slaves again.

17 Therefore the LORD says; Since you have not listened to me, by proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every one to his neighbor: know that I will free you, says the LORD, to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine; and I will cause you to be scattered among all the kingdoms of the earth.

18 And I will make the men who have transgressed my covenant, who did not keep the words of the covenant that they made with me, like the calf they cut in two, in order to pass between its halves,

19 The princes of Judah, and Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, who passed between the parts of the calf;

20 I will deliver them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life: and their dead bodies will be food for the birds of heaven, and the beasts of the earth.

21 And I will deliver Zedekiah the king of Judah and his princes 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 is now leaving you.

22 Know that I will give the command, says the LORD, and cause them to return to this city; and they will fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire: and I will turn the cities of Judah into an uninhabited waste.