Jeremiah
Chapter 34
1 God gave a message to Jeremiah when Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, his army, and all the kingdoms he ruled, along with all their people, were fighting against Jerusalem and its cities. He said,
2 God says to Zedekiah, the king of Judah, “I will give this city to the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down.”
3 You will not avoid capture; you will be caught and handed over to him. You will see the King of Babylon with your own eyes, and he will talk directly to you, and you will go to Babylon.
4 Listen to God’s message, O Zedekiah, king of Judah; God says about you, You will not die by the sword.
5 You will die peacefully, and just as they made fires for past kings before you, they will do the same for you. They will mourn for you and say, “Oh, master!” because I, God, have declared it.
6 The prophet Jeremiah told all these words to Zedekiah, the king of Judah, in Jerusalem.
7 When the king of Babylon’s soldiers fought against Jerusalem and the remaining cities of Judah, Lachish, and Azekah, these were the fortified cities left in Judah.
8 This is the message that Jeremiah received from God after King Zedekiah had agreed with all the people in Jerusalem to set them free.
9 Every man should release his male servant and every man his female servant, if they are Hebrew, so that no one should use them as servants, specifically a fellow Jew.
10 When all the leaders and people who had agreed to the promise heard that they should let their male and female servants go free and not make them serve anymore, they obeyed and let them go.
11 Later, they changed their minds and forced the men and women they had freed to become slaves again.
12 So God spoke to Jeremiah with this message.
13 God, the God of Israel, says: I made an agreement with your ancestors when I took them out of Egypt, from the place of slavery, saying,
14 At the end of seven years, each of you must free any Hebrew who has been sold to you. After they have served you for six years, you must let them go free. But your ancestors did not listen to me or pay attention.
15 You had changed your ways and done what is right in my eyes by giving freedom to each other; and you had made a promise to me in the temple that is named after me.
16 But you turned away and dishonored my name. You forced every freed servant and maid to come back and made them slaves again.
17 So God says: You did not listen to me when I asked you to give freedom to each other. Now, I declare that you will be free to face war, disease, and hunger. And I will scatter you among all the nations on earth.
18 I will punish the men who broke my agreement, who did not keep the promises they made to me when they cut a calf in half and walked between its pieces.
19 The leaders of Judah, the leaders of Jerusalem, the officials, the priests, and all the people of the country who walked between the calf’s pieces.
20 I will let their enemies capture them and those who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the sky and the animals of the land.
21 I will hand King Zedekiah of Judah and his leaders over to their enemies, to those who want to kill them, and to the Babylonian army that has left you.
22 Look, I will give an order, says God, and make them come back to this city; they will attack it, capture it, and burn it down. I will turn the towns of Judah into empty ruins.