Jeremiah 34

1This is the word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth under his rule, and all the peoples were fighting against Jerusalem and all its towns:

2“This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him, ‘This is what Yahweh says: Look, I am handing this city over to the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.

3You yourself will not escape from his hand, but you will certainly be captured and handed over to him. You will see the king of Babylon with your own eyes, and he will speak with you face to face; and you will go to Babylon.

4Yet hear the word of Yahweh, Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what Yahweh says concerning you: You will not die by the sword.

5You will die in peace. As people burned funeral fires for your ancestors, the former kings who came before you, so they will burn a fire for you and mourn for you, crying, “Alas, master!” For I myself have spoken the word, declares Yahweh.’”

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

7while the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the towns of Judah that were still holding out, Lachish and Azekah, for these were the only fortified cities left among the towns of Judah.

8This is the word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom to them,

9that each should set free his Hebrew slaves, both male and female, so that no one would keep a fellow Judean enslaved.

10All the officials and all the people who had entered into the covenant agreed that each would set free his male and female slaves and no longer keep them enslaved. They obeyed and set them free.

11But afterward they changed their minds and took back the male and female slaves they had set free, and forced them to become slaves again.

12Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah from Yahweh:

13“This is what Yahweh, 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 set free his fellow Hebrew who has been sold to you. When he has served you six years, you must let him go free from your service.’ But your ancestors did not listen to me or pay attention.

15Recently you yourselves turned back and did what is right in my sight, each of you proclaiming freedom for his neighbor, and you made a covenant before me in the house that is called by my name.

16But then you turned around and profaned my name. Each of you took back his male and female slaves, whom you had set free to go wherever they wished, and you forced them to become your slaves again.

17Therefore this is what Yahweh says: You have not obeyed me by proclaiming freedom, each to his brother and each to his neighbor. So look, I am proclaiming freedom for you, declares Yahweh—freedom to fall by the sword, by plague, and by famine. I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

18The men who have violated my covenant and have not kept the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will make like the calf they cut in two and walked between its pieces—

19the officials of Judah and the officials of Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests, and all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the calf.

20I will hand them over to their enemies and to those who seek their lives. Their corpses will become food for the birds of the sky and the animals of the earth.

21I will hand Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials over to their enemies, to those who seek their lives, and to the army of the king of Babylon, which has withdrawn from you.

22Look, I am going to give the command, declares Yahweh, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, capture it, and burn it with fire. And I will make the towns of Judah a desolation without inhabitants.”