Jeremiah

34* The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah while King Nebucadnessar of Babylon and all his forces and all his realm were attacking Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah: 2* Says Israel’s God Jehovah, Go to King Sidkijah of Judah and say to him “Says Israel’s God Jehovah, Here I am giving this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it down; 3 and you will not escape from his hands, but will be captured and put into his hands, and your eyes shall see the king of Babylon’s eyes and his mouth shall speak with your mouth, and to Babylon you shall come. 4* Only listen to Jehovah’s word, Sidkijah, king of Judah: says Jehovah for you, You shall not die by the sword: 5 you shall die in peace, and they shall make a burning for you like the burnings for your fathers the early kings before your time, and wail for you ‘Ah, lord!’ for I have made a promise, quoth Jehovah.” 6 And the prophet Jeremiah said all these things to King Sidkijah of Judah 7 while the forces of the king of Babylon were attacking Jerusalem and the only Judahite cities that were left—Lakish and ʽAzekah, because those were what fortified cities remained among the cities of Judah.

8 The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah after King Sidkijah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim liberty to them, 9 to have each man let his Hebrew slave go free, that no one should hold them, his brother Jews, in slavery, 10 and all the generals and all the people that took the pledge to let their respective slaves go free, no longer holding them in slavery, had complied and let them go, 11* but afterward had faced about and taken back the slaves they had let go free and reduced them to slavery again: 12 Jehovah’s word came from Jehovah to Jeremiah, 13 “Says Israel’s God Jehovah, I made a covenant with your fathers on the day I brought them out of the slave-quarters in Egypt, in these terms: 14 ‘At the end of seven years each of you shall let go his Hebrew brother who is sold to you; he shall serve you six years and you shall let him go from you free’; but your fathers did not listen to me nor turn their ears my way. 15 And you had today faced about and done what I approved, proclaiming liberty to each other, and had made a covenant before me in the house that wears my name; 16* but you have gone back and profaned my name and taken back your respective slaves whom you had let go free to do as they chose, and reduced them to being slaves to you again.

17 “So Jehovah says, You have not listened to me to proclaim freedom to your brothers and comrades: here I am proclaiming you free, quoth Jehovah, to the sword and the pestilence and the famine, and making you victims to all kingdoms on earth; 18* and the men that have overstepped my covenant, in that they did not make good the terms of the covenant they made before me when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts, 19 the generals of Judah and of Jerusalem, the eunuchs and the priests and all the common people, who passed between the parts of the calf, 20 I will give into the hands of their enemies and of those who are looking for their lives, and their carcasses shall become food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth; 21 and King Sidkijah of Judah and his generals I will give into the hands of their enemies and of those who are looking for their lives and of the forces of the king of Babylon who have raised the siege; 22 here I give the order, quoth Jehovah, and they shall come back to this city and attack it and take it and burn it down; and the cities of Judah I will make an uninhabited desolation.”