Jeremiah 34

A word for Zedekiah

1This word came to Jeremiah from the LORD while Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, all his army, all the kingdoms under his rule, and all the peoples were fighting Jerusalem and all its towns: 2“The LORD, the God of Israel, says: Go to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him, ‘The LORD says: I am handing this city over to the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down. 3You will not escape him. You will certainly be captured and handed over to him. You will look the king of Babylon in the eyes, and he will speak with you face to face. You will go to Babylon. 4Yet 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 people made funeral burnings for your ancestors, the kings before you, so they will make burnings for you and mourn you, saying, “Alas, lord!” I myself have spoken this word, declares the LORD.’” 6Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem. 7The army of the king of Babylon was fighting Jerusalem and the towns of Judah still holding out—Lachish and Azekah, the only fortified towns of Judah that remained.

Freedom proclaimed and taken back

8This word came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for them: 9Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, male and female, so that no one would keep a fellow Judean, a brother, enslaved. 10All the officials and all the people who entered the covenant agreed to free their male and female slaves and no longer keep them enslaved. They obeyed and set them free. 11But afterward they changed course. They took back the male and female slaves they had freed and forced them into slavery again.

A broken covenant

12Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 13“The LORD, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. I said: 14‘At the end of seven years, each of you must release a Hebrew brother who has been sold to you and has served you six years. You must set him free from your service.’ But your ancestors did not listen to me or incline their ears. 15Recently you turned back and did what was right in my eyes: each of you proclaimed freedom for your neighbor. You made a covenant before me in the house that bears my name. 16Then you turned back again and profaned my name. Each of you took back the male and female slaves you had set free to live as they wished, and forced them to be your slaves again.

17So the LORD says: You have not listened to me by proclaiming freedom for your brother and your neighbor. Now I proclaim freedom for you, declares the LORD—freedom to the sword, to plague, and to famine! I will make you an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 18I will make the men who violated my covenant, who did not carry out the terms of the covenant they made before me, like the calf they cut in two and passed between its pieces: 19the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officers, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the calf's pieces. 20I will hand them over to their enemies, to those seeking their lives. Their bodies will become food for the birds of the sky and the animals of the earth. 21I will also hand Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials over to their enemies, to those seeking their lives, and to the army of the king of Babylon that has withdrawn from you. 22I will give the command, declares the LORD, and bring them back to this city. They will fight it, capture it, and burn it down. I will make Judah's towns a waste, without inhabitants.”