34:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the
kingdoms of the earth of his dominion, and all the people
fought against Jerusalem, and against all its cities, saying,
34:2 Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Go and speak to
Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD;
Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of
Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire:
34:3 And thou shalt not escape from his hand, but shalt surely
be taken, and delivered into his hand; and thy eyes shall
behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with
thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon.
34:4 Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah;
Thus saith the LORD concerning thee, Thou shalt not die by the
sword:
34:5 [But] thou shalt die in peace: and with the burnings of thy
fathers, the former kings who were before thee, so shall they
burn [odors] for thee; and they will lament thee, [saying], Ah
lord! for I have pronounced the word, saith the LORD.
34:6 Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah
king of Judah in Jerusalem,
34:7 When the king of Babylon's army fought against Jerusalem,
and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against
Lachish, and against Azekah: for these fortified cities
remained of the cities of Judah.
34:8 [This is] the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD,
after king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who
[were] at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them;
34:9 That every man should liberate his man-servant, and every
man his maid-servant, [being] a Hebrew or a Hebrewess; that
none should retain them in service, [to wit], a Jew his
brother.
34:10 Now when all the princes, and all the people who had
entered into the covenant, heard that every one should liberate
his man-servant, and every one his maid-servant, that none
should retain them in service any more, then they obeyed, and
let [them] go.
34:11 But afterwards they turned, and caused the servants and
the handmaids, whom they had liberated, to return, and brought
them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.
34:12 Therefore the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the
LORD, saying,
34:13 Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; I made a covenant
with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth from the
land of Egypt, out of the house of bond-men, saying,
34:14 At the end of seven years dismiss ye every man his brother
a Hebrew, who hath been sold to thee; and when he hath served
thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your
fathers hearkened not to me, neither inclined their ear.
34:15 And ye had now turned, and had done right in my sight, in
proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor; and ye had made
a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name:
34:16 But ye turned and profaned my name, and caused every man
his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom he had set at
liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into
subjection, to be to you for servants and for handmaids.
34:17 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ye have not hearkened to
me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every
man to his neighbor: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you,
saith the LORD, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the
famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms
of the earth.
34:18 And I will give the men that have transgressed my
covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant
which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in two,
and passed between the parts of it,
34:19 The princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the
eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, who
passed between the parts of the calf;
34:20 I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and
into the hand of them that seek their life: and their dead
bodies shall be for food to the fowls of the heaven, and to the
beasts of the earth.
34:21 And Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes I will give
into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that
seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon's
army, which are gone up from you.
34:22 Behold, I will command, saith the LORD, and cause them to
return to this city; and they shall fight against it, and take
it, and burn it with fire: and I will make the cities of Judah
a desolation without an inhabitant.
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