Ἱερεμίας 34
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:
2 οὕτως εἶπεν κύριος ποίησον δεσμοὺς καὶ κλοιοὺς καὶ περίθου περὶ τὸν τράχηλόν σου
“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.
3 καὶ ἀποστελεῖς αὐτοὺς πρὸς βασιλέα Ιδουμαίας καὶ πρὸς βασιλέα Μωαβ καὶ πρὸς βασιλέα υἱῶν Αμμων καὶ πρὸς βασιλέα Τύρου καὶ πρὸς βασιλέα Σιδῶνος ἐν χερσὶν ἀγγέλων αὐτῶν τῶν ἐρχομένων εἰς ἀπάντησιν αὐτῶν εἰς Ιερουσαλημ πρὸς Σεδεκιαν βασιλέα Ιουδα
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.”’
4 καὶ συντάξεις αὐτοῖς πρὸς τοὺς κυρίους αὐτῶν εἰπεῖν οὕτως εἶπεν κύριος ὁ θεὸς Ισραηλ οὕτως ἐρεῖτε πρὸς τοὺς κυρίους ὑμῶν
But King Zedekiah, listen to this that Yahweh has promised: ‘You will not be killed in a battle [MTY];
5 ὅτι ἐγὼ ἐποίησα τὴν γῆν ἐν τῇ ἰσχύι μου τῇ μεγάλῃ καὶ ἐν τῷ ἐπιχείρῳ μου τῷ ὑψηλῷ καὶ δώσω αὐτὴν ᾧ ἐὰν δόξῃ ἐν ὀφθαλμοῖς μου
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.’”
6 ἔδωκα τὴν γῆν τῷ Ναβουχοδονοσορ βασιλεῖ Βαβυλῶνος δουλεύειν αὐτῷ καὶ τὰ θηρία τοῦ ἀγροῦ ἐργάζεσθαι αὐτῷ
[So] I took that message to King Zedekiah.
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.
8 καὶ τὸ ἔθνος καὶ ἡ βασιλεία ὅσοι ἐὰν μὴ ἐμβάλωσιν τὸν τράχηλον αὐτῶν ὑπὸ τὸν ζυγὸν βασιλέως Βαβυλῶνος ἐν μαχαίρᾳ καὶ ἐν λιμῷ ἐπισκέψομαι αὐτούς εἶπεν κύριος ἕως ἐκλίπωσιν ἐν χειρὶ αὐτοῦ
King Zedekiah had decreed that the people must free their slaves.
9 καὶ ὑμεῖς μὴ ἀκούετε τῶν ψευδοπροφητῶν ὑμῶν καὶ τῶν μαντευομένων ὑμῖν καὶ τῶν ἐνυπνιαζομένων ὑμῖν καὶ τῶν οἰωνισμάτων ὑμῶν καὶ τῶν φαρμακῶν ὑμῶν τῶν λεγόντων οὐ μὴ ἐργάσησθε τῷ βασιλεῖ Βαβυλῶνος
[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.
10 ὅτι ψευδῆ αὐτοὶ προφητεύουσιν ὑμῖν πρὸς τὸ μακρῦναι ὑμᾶς ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς ὑμῶν
The officials and the rest of the people had obeyed [what the king decreed],
11 καὶ τὸ ἔθνος ὃ ἐὰν εἰσαγάγῃ τὸν τράχηλον αὐτοῦ ὑπὸ τὸν ζυγὸν βασιλέως Βαβυλῶνος καὶ ἐργάσηται αὐτῷ καὶ καταλείψω αὐτὸν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς αὐτοῦ καὶ ἐργᾶται αὐτῷ καὶ ἐνοικήσει ἐν αὐτῇ
but later they changed their minds. They forced the men and women whom they had freed to become their slaves again.
12 καὶ πρὸς Σεδεκιαν βασιλέα Ιουδα ἐλάλησα κατὰ πάντας τοὺς λόγους τούτους λέγων εἰσαγάγετε τὸν τράχηλον ὑμῶν
[So] Yahweh gave me this message [to tell to them]:
“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.
14 καὶ ἐργάσασθε τῷ βασιλεῖ Βαβυλῶνος ὅτι ἄδικα αὐτοὶ προφητεύουσιν ὑμῖν
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.
15 ὅτι οὐκ ἀπέστειλα αὐτούς φησὶν κύριος καὶ προφητεύουσιν τῷ ὀνόματί μου ἐπ’ ἀδίκῳ πρὸς τὸ ἀπολέσαι ὑμᾶς καὶ ἀπολεῖσθε ὑμεῖς καὶ οἱ προφῆται ὑμῶν οἱ προφητεύοντες ὑμῖν ἐπ’ ἀδίκῳ ψευδῆ
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.
16 ὑμῖν καὶ παντὶ τῷ λαῷ τούτῳ καὶ τοῖς ἱερεῦσιν ἐλάλησα λέγων οὕτως εἶπεν κύριος μὴ ἀκούετε τῶν λόγων τῶν προφητῶν τῶν προφητευόντων ὑμῖν λεγόντων ἰδοὺ σκεύη οἴκου κυρίου ἐπιστρέψει ἐκ Βαβυλῶνος ὅτι ἄδικα αὐτοὶ προφητεύουσιν ὑμῖν οὐκ ἀπέστειλα αὐτούς
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.
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.
18 εἰ προφῆταί εἰσιν καὶ εἰ ἔστιν λόγος κυρίου ἐν αὐτοῖς ἀπαντησάτωσάν μοι
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].
19 ὅτι οὕτως εἶπεν κύριος καὶ τῶν ἐπιλοίπων σκευῶν
20 ὧν οὐκ ἔλαβεν βασιλεὺς Βαβυλῶνος ὅτε ἀπῴκισεν τὸν Ιεχονιαν ἐξ Ιερουσαλημ
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 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],
22 εἰς Βαβυλῶνα εἰσελεύσεται λέγει κύριος
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].’”
