UST JER Chapter 34

◄ JER 34 ► ║ ═ ©

34 King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came with his whole army and with the armies of all the kingdoms that he ruled, and they fought against Jerusalem and against all the other cities of Judah. At that time, Yahweh gave me, Jeremiah, this message. He said, 2 “I am Yahweh, the God whom you Israelites worship, and I am telling you to go to Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and tell him this. ‘Yahweh, says this: “I am about to enable the army of the king of Babylon to capture this city, and they will burn it down. 3 You will not escape from them. They will surely capture you and hand you over to the control of the king of Babylon. You will meet the king of Babylon in person and speak with him directly, and then they will take you to Babylon.’

4 But King Zedekiah, listen to what I, Yahweh, promise about you: ‘You will not die in battle. 5 You will die peacefully. At your funeral people will burn incense to honor you, just as they did for your ancestors, the kings who ruled before you. They will mourn for you, crying out, “We are very sad, our master!” This will surely happen because I myself have spoken it. This is what I, Yahweh, declare.’ ”

6 So I, Jeremiah the prophet, told all of this to King Zedekiah while I was in Jerusalem. 7 At that time the army of the king of Babylon was attacking Jerusalem and all the remaining cities of Judah, Lachish and Azekah. Because those were the only cities in Judah that had high walls around them that the Babylonians had not yet captured.

8 Yahweh gave me, Jeremiah, a message after King Zedekiah had made a solemn agreement with all the people who were in Jerusalem, that they must free their slaves. 9 He decreed that the people must free their Hebrew slaves, both the men and the women. No one was to keep a fellow Jew as a slave any longer. 10 So all the officials and the rest of the people who had agreed to this obeyed, and they freed their slaves. 11 But later they changed their minds. They forced the men and women whom they had freed to become their slaves again.

12 So Yahweh gave me, Jeremiah, this message. He said, 13 “I, Yahweh, the God whom you Israelites worship, say this. Long ago, when I rescued your ancestors from Egypt, where they were slaves, I made a solemn agreement with them. I told them this: 14 ‘Every seventh year, each of you must free any fellow Hebrew who has sold himself to you and has served you for six years. You must let him go free.’ But your ancestors did not pay any attention to what I said. 15 Recently, you yourselves did what pleases me: you stopped doing what was wrong. Each of you promised to free your fellow Israelites, and you made a solemn agreement about this before me in my temple, the place that belongs to me. 16 But now you have disregarded what you solemnly promised and dishonored me. Each of you has taken back the male and female slaves whom you had freed to live where they desired, and you have forced them to be your slaves again.

17 Therefore, this is what I, Yahweh, say: ‘Because you have not obeyed me by each of you freeing your fellow Israelites, I will certainly now set you free— free to die in war, from disease, and from famine! I will make the people from all the kingdoms of the earth horrified when they see what happens to you. 18 I will cut apart the people who have disobeyed what I said in my solemn agreement and who did not do what they solemnly promised before me. To confirm that agreement, they cut a calf into two pieces and walked between the pieces. 19 This includes the officials of Judah and the officials of Jerusalem, the palace officials, the priests, and all the rest of the common people— everyone who walked between the pieces of the calf. 20 I will enable their enemies, who want to kill them, to capture them, and their enemies will kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals.

21 I will enable the army of the king of Babylon to capture King Zedekiah of Judah and his officials. Although the king of Babylon and his army have left Jerusalem for a short time. 22 Know that I, Yahweh, am giving the command that will cause the army of Babylon to return to this city. They will attack it, capture it, and burn it down. And I will make sure that the cities of Judah are destroyed and no longer have anyone living in them.’ ” That is what Yahweh declares.