Jeremiah 34

34 ¹The word to Jeremiah from our Father when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, all his army, and all the kingdoms he ruled and all the peoples fought against Jerusalem and all its cities:

²our Father of Israel says: Go, speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, tell him: our Father says: I am handing this city to Babylon's king; he will burn it with fire. ³You will not escape his hand but will surely be captured and handed to him. Your eyes will see the king of Babylon's eyes, his mouth speaking to yours, and you will go to Babylon.

⁴Yet hear the word of your Father, Zedekiah, king of Judah: our Father says you won't die by the sword.

⁵You will die in peace. As spices were burned for your fathers, the kings before you, so they will burn them for you and mourn you, 'Alas, lord!' I have spoken this, declares your Father.

⁶Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem, ⁷while Babylon's king's army attacked Jerusalem and all Judah's remaining cities—Lachish and Azekah, the last fortified cities left in Judah.

The Father Judges a Broken Covenant

⁸The word to Jeremiah from our Father after King Zedekiah made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem, proclaiming freedom to them: ⁹each to free his Hebrew male and female slaves, so no one would enslave a fellow Judahite, his brother. ¹⁰All officials and people who had entered the covenant obeyed, each freeing his male and female slaves, no longer holding them in bondage; they obeyed and freed them. ¹¹Afterward they turned back and took back the male and female slaves they had freed, and forced them back into slavery.

¹²Then the word of our Father came to Jeremiah, saying:

¹³This is what our Father of Israel says: "I myself made a covenant with your fathers the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying: ¹⁴At seven years' end, each must free his Hebrew brother sold to you and serving six years; set him free. But your fathers did not listen or pay attention to me. ¹⁵You recently turned and did right in my eyes, each proclaiming freedom to his neighbor, making a covenant before me in the house that bears my name. ¹⁶But you turned back and desecrated my name: each of you took back the male and female slaves you had freed to go freely, forcing them into slavery again."

¹⁷So our Father says: "You did not obey me by proclaiming freedom, each to his brother and neighbor. So I proclaim freedom for you—declares your Father—to the sword, plague, and famine; I will make you a horror to every kingdom of the earth. ¹⁸I will hand over the men who broke my covenant, failing to keep the terms they made before me—like the calf they cut in two and passed between the parts. ^a a v18 In ancient covenant ceremonies, the parties walked between the halves of a slaughtered animal, invoking that same fate on themselves if they broke the agreement. ¹⁹Judah's and Jerusalem's officials, the court officials, the priests, and all the land's people who passed between the calf's pieces. ²⁰I will hand them to their enemies, to those seeking their life. Their corpses will feed the birds of the sky and the animals of the earth. ²¹Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials I will hand to their enemies, to those seeking their lives, and to the army of Babylon's king that has withdrawn from you. ²²I am giving orders, declares your Father, to bring them back to this city; they will fight it, capture it, and burn it. And I will make Judah's cities a wasteland where no one lives."