JeremiahChapter 34

Tap any verse to comment or suggest a better wording.

¹The LORD gave a message to Jeremiah. At that time Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and all the towns around it. His whole army was with him. All the kingdoms of the earth that he ruled were there too, and all the other nations. ²The LORD, the God of Israel, told Jeremiah to go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah. He was to tell him that this is what the LORD says: "Look, I am about to hand this city over to the king of Babylon. He will burn it down. ³And you will not escape from him. You will surely be caught and handed over to him. You will see the king of Babylon eye to eye. You will speak with him face to face. And you will go to Babylon. ⁴But hear the word of the LORD, Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the LORD says about you: You will not die by the sword. ⁵You will die in peace. People burned spices to honor your fathers, the kings who ruled before you. In the same way they will burn spices for you. They will mourn for you and cry, 'Oh, master!' For I myself have made this promise, says the LORD." ⁶So Jeremiah the prophet told all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem. ⁷At that time the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem. It was also fighting the other towns of Judah that were left, Lachish and Azekah. These were the only walled cities left in Judah. ⁸King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to announce freedom. After that, the LORD gave a message to Jeremiah. ⁹The covenant said that each man must free his Hebrew slaves, both men and women. No one was to keep a fellow Jew as a slave. ¹⁰All the officials and all the people who made this covenant agreed. They would free their male and female servants. They would no longer keep them as slaves. They obeyed and let them go. ¹¹But later they changed their minds. They took back the male and female servants they had freed. They forced them to be slaves again. ¹²Then the LORD gave this message to Jeremiah. He said, ¹³"This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your ancestors. It was when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the place where they were slaves. I said, ¹⁴Every seventh year, each of you must free any Hebrew who sold himself to you. He may serve you six years. But then you must let him go free. But your fathers did not listen or pay attention. ¹⁵Not long ago you turned back to me and did what pleased me. Each of you announced freedom for his neighbor. You made a covenant in front of me in the house that bears my Name. ¹⁶But now you have changed your minds. You have treated my name as if it were not holy. Each of you took back the male and female servants you had set free. You had let them go wherever they wanted. But you forced them to be your slaves again. ¹⁷So this is what the LORD says: You have not obeyed me. You have not announced freedom, each man for his brother and his neighbor. So now I announce freedom for you, says the LORD. It is freedom to die by the sword, by sickness, and by hunger! I will make you a thing of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. ¹⁸These people broke my covenant. They did not keep the terms of the covenant they made in front of me. They cut a calf in two and walked between its pieces. Now I will treat them like that calf. ¹⁹This means the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the palace officials, and the priests. It means all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the calf. ²⁰I will hand them over to their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth. ²¹I will hand Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials over to their enemies who want to kill them. I will give them to the army of the king of Babylon. That army has pulled back from you for now. ²²Look, I am going to give the order, says the LORD. I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, capture it, and burn it down. I will make the towns of Judah empty ruins where no one lives."