Jeremiah 34
1 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came with the armies of all the kingdoms that he ruled, and they fought against Jerusalem and the other towns [in Judah]. At that time, Yahweh gave me this message:
The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms of the earth that were under his dominion, and all the peoples, were fighting against Jerusalem, and against all the cities thereof, saying,
2 “Go to Zedekiah the King of Judah, and say to him, ‘This is what Yahweh, the God whom we Israelis [worship], says: “I am about to enable the army of the King of Babylon to capture this city, and they will burn it down.
Thus says Jehovah, the God of Israel: Go, and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, Thus says Jehovah: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.
3 You will not escape from them; they will capture you and take you to the king of Babylon. And [then] they will take you to Babylon.”’
And thou shall not escape out of his hand, but shall surely be taken, and delivered into his hand. And thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and thou shall go to Babylon.
4 But King Zedekiah, listen to this that Yahweh has promised: ‘You will not be killed in a battle [MTY];
Yet hear the word of Jehovah, O Zedekiah king of Judah. Thus says Jehovah concerning thee, Thou shall not die by the sword;
5 you will die peacefully. [When you die], people will burn incense to honor/remember you just as they did for your ancestors who were kings before you became king. They will mourn for you, crying, “We are very sad that our king is dead!” I, Yahweh, promise that will happen.’”
thou shall die in peace. And with the burnings of thy fathers, the former kings who were before thee, so shall they make a burning for thee. And they shall lament thee, saying, Ah lord! For I have spoken the word, says Jehovah.
6 [So] I took that message to King Zedekiah.
Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah, king of Judah in Jerusalem,
7 At that time the army of Babylonia had surrounded Jerusalem and Lachish and Azekah. Those [three] cities were the only cities in Judah that had high walls around them that still had not been captured.
when the king of Babylon's army was fighting against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish and against Azekah, for these alone remained of the cities of Judah, fortified cities.
8 King Zedekiah had decreed that the people must free their slaves.
The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, after the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them,
9 [He decreed that] the people must free their Hebrew slaves, [both the] men slaves and the women [slaves]. No one would be allowed to force a fellow Jew to [continue to] be his slave.
that every man should let his man-servant, and every man his maid-servant, who is a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, go free, that none should make bondmen of them, namely, of a Jew his brother.
10 The officials and the rest of the people had obeyed [what the king decreed],
And all the rulers and all the people obeyed, who had entered into the covenant, that everyone should let his man-servant, and everyone his maid-servant, go free, that none should make bondmen of them any more. They obeyed, and let them go.
11 but later they changed their minds. They forced the men and women whom they had freed to become their slaves again.
But afterwards they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.
12 [So] Yahweh gave me this message [to tell to them]:
Therefore the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,
13 “I, Yahweh, the God whom you Israelis [say you belong to], (made an agreement with/gave this command to) your ancestors [long ago], when I rescued them from being slaves in Egypt.
Thus says Jehovah, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying,
14 I told them that they must free all their Hebrew slaves after the slaves had worked for them for six years. But your ancestors did not pay any attention to what I said.
At the end of seven years ye shall let go every man his brother who is a Hebrew, who has been sold to thee, and has served thee six years. Thou shall let him go free from thee. But your fathers hearkened not to me, nor inclined their ear.
15 Recently, you obeyed my command and stopped doing what was wrong and did what was right. You made a solemn agreement at my temple [that you would free your slaves], and [then] you freed them.
And ye were now turned, and had done that which is right in my eyes, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor. And ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name.
16 But now you have disregarded what you solemnly promised, and you have shown contempt for what I [MTY] said by taking back the women and men whom you had freed and said they could live wherever they wanted to. [Now] you have forced them to be your slaves again.
But ye turned and profaned my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom ye had let go free at their pleasure, to return. And ye brought them into subjection, to be to you for servants and for handmaids.
17 Therefore, this is what [I], Yahweh, say: ‘Because you have not obeyed me by freeing your fellow Israelis, I will free you to [be destroyed by] the swords [of your enemies] and by famines and diseases. All the nations of the earth will be horrified because of [what happens to] you.
Therefore thus says Jehovah: Ye have not hearkened to me, to proclaim liberty, every man to his brother, and every man to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim to you a liberty, says Jehovah-to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine. And I will make you to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth.
18 Because you have disregarded what I said in my agreement with you, I will do to you just like you did to the calves that you cut in half to show that you would surely do what you solemnly promised that you would do. I will [enable your enemies to] cut you into pieces, you officials of Judah and you officials of Jerusalem, and you officials in the palace, and you priests and all you common people. I will do that because you have disregarded what you solemnly promised [about freeing your slaves].
And I will give the men who have transgressed my covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between the parts of it,
the rulers of Judah, and the rulers of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, who passed between the parts of the calf,
20 I will enable your enemies to capture you, and they will kill you. And your bodies will be food for vultures and wild animals.
I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life. And their dead bodies shall be for food to the birds of the heavens, and to the beasts of the earth.
21 I will enable the army of the king of Babylon to capture King Zedekiah and his officials. Although the king of Babylon and his army have left Jerusalem [for a short time],
And I will give Zedekiah king of Judah, and his rulers, into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon's army that has gone away from you.
22 I will summon them back again. [This time], they will fight against this city and capture it and burn it down. I will make [sure] that all the towns in Judah are destroyed, [with the result that] no one will live there [any more].’”
Behold, I will command, says Jehovah, and cause them to return to this city. And they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire. And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.
