Open English Translation JER Chapter 34

34 Yahweh gave this message to Yirmeyah when the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar, along with all the world’s kingdoms, domains, and people groups under his control, was attacking Yerushalem and Yehudah’s other cities, saying:[ref] 2 Yisrael’s god Yahweh says to go and speak to Yehudah’s King Tsidkiyah (Zedekiah) and tell him that Yahweh says this: Listen, I’m about to hand this city over to the Babylonian king, and he’ll set it on fire. 3 You won’t escape from his power, because you’ll definitely be captured and handed over to him and you’ll talk face-to-face with the king of Babylon as you’re taken to Babylon. 4 However King Tsidkiyah, listen to Yahweh’s message—you won’t be killed by being run through with a sword 5 but actually you’ll die in peace. They’ll cremate your body as was done for your ancestors, the previous kings, and they’ll mourn for you saying,, ‘Oh no, master!’ That’s the promise that Yahweh has declared. 6 So the prophet Yirmeyah passed on all those messages to Yehudah’s King Tsidkiyah in Yerushalem 7 when the Babylonian king’s army had attacked Yerushalem and Yehudah’s remaining fortified cities of Lakish and Azekah.

8 Yahweh gave a message to Yirmeyah after King Tsidkiyah had made an agreement with all the people in Yerushalem that they’d free 9 their male and female Hebrew slaves—no one should force a fellow Jew to work for them. 10 So all the leaders and people formally agreed that each person would free their male and female slaves, and they put it into practice—taking them from their work and setting them free. 11 However, after that they changed their minds and retrieved the male and female slaves that they’d freed, then forced them to work as slaves again.

12 Then Yahweh gave me this message to tell them: 13 Yisrael’s god Yahweh says that I personally made an agreement with your ancestors on the day that I brought them out from their lives of slavery in Egypt (Heb. Mitsrayim). That was when I said that 14 at the end of every seven years, you all must release any fellow Hebrews who had sold themselves to you and served you for six years, releasing them as free people. However, your ancestors did not listen to me or show any desire to obey me.[ref] 15 Now recently, you yourselves repented and began to do what I’ve said is right. You all made a solemn agreement at my temple that carries my name, that you’d monitor each other to free your slaves. 16 But then you all turned and profaned my name by retrieving your male and female slaves which you’d released as free people, and then forced them to work as slaves again, 17 therefore Yahweh says this: You yourselves haven’t listened to me—you all should have declared your fellow Israelis to be free. So listen, I’m about to proclaim ‘freedom’ for you: freedom to experience war, deadly diseases, and famine, because I’m going to make you a horrible thing in the sight of every kingdom in the world. That is Yahweh’s declaration. 18 Then I’ll deal with the people who’ve broken my agreement, who didn’t respect the intent of the agreement that they established in front of me when they cut a bull in two and walked between the two halves, 19 when the leaders of Yehudah and Yerushalem, the officials and the priests, and all the people of the land walked between the two sections of the bull. 20 I’ll hand them over to their enemies and to those who want to see them dead. Their bodies will be food for the birds in the skies and the animals on the ground. 21 I’ll hand Yehudah’s King Tsidkiyah (Zedekiah) and his leaders over to their enemies and to those who want to see them dead, and to the army of the Babylonian king who’s attacking you. 22 This is Yahweh’s declaration: Listen, I’m about to order them back to battle against this city, and they’ll capture it and set it on fire. Then I’ll make Yehudah’s other cities into deserted wastelands.