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Jeremiah 34:1-22 — Warning to Zedekiah; Freedom for Slaves

Jer.34.1-22

¹The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, all his army, all the kingdoms of the earth under his dominion, and all the peoples were fighting against Jerusalem and against all its cities, saying: ²Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and say to him, 'Thus says the LORD: Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.' ³And you will not escape from his hand, for you will surely be captured and given into his hand. Your eyes will see the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he will speak with you mouth to mouth, and you will go to Babylon. ⁴Yet hear the word of the LORD, Zedekiah king of Judah. Thus says the LORD concerning you: You will not die by the sword. ⁵You will die in peace, and as spices were burned for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so they will burn spices for you, and they will lament for you, 'Alas, master!' For I have spoken the word, declares the LORD. ⁶Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem, ⁷while the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were left—against Lachish and against Azekah—for these alone remained as fortified cities of Judah. ⁸The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim liberty to them: ⁹that each man should set free his male slave and each man his female slave, the Hebrew man or the Hebrew woman, so that no one should hold a Jew, his brother, in bondage. ¹⁰And all the officials and all the people who had entered into the covenant obeyed, each to set free his male slave and each his female slave, so that they would no longer be held in bondage. They obeyed and set them free. ¹¹But afterward they turned back and brought back the male slaves and the female slaves whom they had set free, and they forced them into slavery again. ¹²Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying: ¹³Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying: ¹⁴At the end of seven years each of you must set free his Hebrew brother who has been sold to you and has served you six years; you must send him away free from you. But your fathers did not listen to me or incline their ear. ¹⁵And you yourselves had recently turned and done what was right in my eyes, by proclaiming liberty each man to his neighbor, and you made a covenant before me in the house that is called by my name. ¹⁶But you turned back and profaned my name, and each of you brought back his male slave and his female slave, whom you had set free to go where they wished, and you forced them into subjection to be your slaves. ¹⁷Therefore thus says the LORD: You have not listened to me by proclaiming liberty, each man to his brother and each man to his neighbor. Behold, I am proclaiming liberty to you, declares the LORD—to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine. I will make you an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. ¹⁸And I will make the men who transgressed my covenant—who did not keep the words of the covenant that they made before me—like the calf they cut in two and passed between its pieces : ¹⁹the officials of Judah and the officials of Jerusalem, the court officials and the priests and all the people of the land who passed between the pieces of the calf— ²⁰I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life, and their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth. ²¹And Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials I will give into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life, and into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon that has withdrawn from you. ²²Behold, I am giving the command, declares the LORD, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it and capture it and burn it with fire, and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.

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4/11/2026

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