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 nations, made war 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 saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: Go and speak to Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and say to him, Thus saith 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 shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt 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 shalt 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 saith Jehovah concerning thee: Thou shalt 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.’”
in peace shalt thou die; and according to the burnings of thy fathers, the former kings, who were before thee, so shall they burn for thee; and they shall lament for thee, saying, “Ah, lord!” for I have spoken the word, saith Jehovah.
6 [So] I took that message to King Zedekiah.
And Jeremiah the prophet spake all these words to Zedekiah, king of Judah, at 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.
And the army of the king of Babylon fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish, and against Azekah; for these fortified cities remained of the cities of Judah.
8 King Zedekiah had decreed that the people must free their slaves.
The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people that 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 one should let his man-servant or his maid-servant, being a Hebrew or Hebrewess, go free, that no one should retain his brother, a Jew, in servitude.
10 The officials and the rest of the people had obeyed [what the king decreed],
And all the princes, and all the people, who had entered into covenant to let every one his man-servant and every one his maid-servant go free, and retain them in servitude no longer, obeyed; 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 they returned afterwards, and took back the men-servants and the maid-servants whom they had let go free, and brought them into subjection as men-servants and as maid-servants.
12 [So] Yahweh gave me this message [to tell to them]:
Then came the word of Jehovah 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 saith Jehovah, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers in the day when I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondmen, and said,
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, a Hebrew, who shall have been sold to thee; when he shall have served thee six years, thou shalt 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 when ye had turned at this time, and had done what was right in mine eyes, in proclaiming liberty every one to his neighbor, and had entered into 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.
then ye returned and profaned my name, and took back every one his man-servant, and every one his maid-servant, whom he had set at liberty at their pleasure, and brought them into subjection to be men-servants and maid-servants to you.
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 saith Jehovah: Ye have not hearkened to me in proclaiming liberty every one to his brother, and every one to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith Jehovah, to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine, and I will give you up to oppression in 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 make the men who have transgressed my covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before me, like the calf which they cut in twain, and passed between the parts thereof,
the princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, that 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 give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life; and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of heaven, and for 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 Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his princes, will I give into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life, even into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, which are gone up 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, saith 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 an inhabitant.
