1This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, all his army, all the earthly kingdoms under his control, and all the other nations were fighting against Jerusalem and all its surrounding cities.[ † ]2 Kings 25:1Jeremiah 32:1-2Jeremiah 39:1Jeremiah 52:4Jeremiah 1:15Jeremiah 25:9Daniel 2:37-38 2The Lord, the God of Israel, told Jeremiah to go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him that this is what the Lord says: “Behold, I am about to deliver this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down.[ † ]2 Chronicles 36:11-12Jeremiah 22:1-2Jeremiah 37:1-22 Kings 25:9Jeremiah 21:10Jeremiah 32:3-28 3And you yourself will not escape his grasp, but will surely be captured and delivered into his hand. You will see the king of Babylon eye to eye and speak with him face to face; and you will go to Babylon.[ † ]2 Kings 25:4-5Jeremiah 21:7Jeremiah 52:7-112 Kings 25:6-7Jeremiah 32:4Jeremiah 39:5-6
4Yet hear the word of the Lord, O Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the Lord says concerning you: You will not die by the sword; 5you will die in peace. As spices were burned for your fathers, the former kings who preceded you, so people will burn spices for you and lament, ‘Alas, O master!’ For I Myself have spoken this word, declares the Lord.”[ † ]2 Chronicles 16:142 Chronicles 21:19Daniel 2:46Jeremiah 22:18
6In Jerusalem, then, Jeremiah the prophet relayed all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah 7as the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and the remaining cities of Judah—against Lachish and Azekah. For these were the only fortified cities remaining in Judah.[ † ]2 Kings 18:132 Kings 19:82 Chronicles 11:5-9
8After King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim liberty, the word came to Jeremiah from the Lord[ † ]Exodus 21:2Leviticus 25:10Nehemiah 5:1-13Isaiah 58:6Jeremiah 34:14-17 9that each man should free his Hebrew slaves, both male and female, and no one should hold his fellow Jew in bondage.[ † ]Nehemiah 5:11Leviticus 25:39-46 10So all the officials and all the people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their menservants and maidservants and no longer hold them in bondage. They obeyed and released them, 11but later they changed their minds and took back the menservants and maidservants they had freed, and they forced them to become slaves again.
12Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 13“This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your forefathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying:[ † ]Exodus 24:3-7, 8Deuteronomy 5:2-3, 27Jeremiah 31:32 14Every seventh year, each of you must free his Hebrew brother who has 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 incline their ear.[ † ]Exodus 21:2Exodus 23:10Deuteronomy 15:121 Kings 9:22
15Recently you repented and did what pleased Me; each of you proclaimed freedom for his neighbor. You made a covenant before Me in the house that bears My Name.[ † ]2 Kings 23:3Nehemiah 10:29Jeremiah 7:10 16But now you have changed your minds and profaned My name. Each of you has taken back the menservants and maidservants whom you had set at liberty to go wherever they wanted, and you have again forced them to be your slaves.[ † ]Exodus 20:7Leviticus 19:12
17Therefore this is what the Lord says: You have not obeyed Me; you have not proclaimed freedom, each man for his brother and for his neighbor. So now I proclaim freedom for you, declares the Lord—freedom to fall by sword, by plague, and by famine! I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.[ † ]Leviticus 26:34-35Esther 7:10Daniel 6:24Matthew 7:2Galatians 6:7James 2:13Jeremiah 32:24-36Deuteronomy 28:25-64Jeremiah 29:18
18And those who have transgressed My covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before Me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two in order to pass between its pieces.[ † ]Genesis 15:10-17 19The officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the pieces of the calf, 20I will deliver into the hands of their enemies who seek their lives. Their corpses will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.[ † ]2 Kings 25:19-21Jeremiah 22:25Deuteronomy 28:261 Samuel 17:44-461 Kings 14:111 Kings 16:4Psalms 79:2Jeremiah 7:33Jeremiah 19:7 21And I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials into the hands of their enemies who seek their lives, to the army of the king of Babylon that had withdrawn from you.[ † ]Jeremiah 37:5-11Jeremiah 39:4-7
22Behold, I am going to give the command, declares the Lord, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, capture it, and burn it down. And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”[ † ]Jeremiah 37:8-10Jeremiah 38:3Jeremiah 39:1-2, 8Jeremiah 52:7-13Jeremiah 9:11Jeremiah 44:2-6