A Prophecy against Zedekiah
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD when Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms of the earth under the dominion of his hand and all the peoples were fighting against Jerusalem and against all her cities, saying:
Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Go and say to Zedekiah king of Judah, and say to him: Thus says the LORD: See, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.
And you will not escape from his hand, for you will surely be seized and given into his hand; and your eyes will see the eyes of the king of Babylon, and his mouth will speak with your mouth, and to Babylon you will come.
Only hear the word of the LORD, Zedekiah king of Judah. Thus says the LORD concerning you: You will not die by the sword.
In peace you will die; and like the burnings for your fathers, the earlier kings who were before you, so they will burn for you, and Ah, lord! they will lament for you. For it is a word I myself have spoken — the utterance of the LORD.
And Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem,
while the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that remained — against Lachish and against Azekah — for these remained of the cities of Judah, the fortified cities.
Freedom for Hebrew Slaves
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah cut a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem, to proclaim release to them:
that each should send away his male servant and each his female servant, the Hebrew man and the Hebrew woman, free, so that no man should make a servant of them, of a Judean, his brother.
And all the princes and all the people who had entered the covenant heard — that each should send away his male servant and each his female servant free, so as not to make servants of them any more — and they heard and sent them away.
But afterward they turned and brought back the male servants and the female servants whom they had sent away free, and forced them into being male and female servants.
And the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying:
Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I myself cut a covenant with your fathers on the day I brought them out from the land of Egypt, from the house of servants, saying:
At the end of seven years you shall send away each his Hebrew brother who is sold to you and has served you six years; and you shall send him away free from you. But your fathers did not listen to me and did not incline their ear.
And you turned today and did what is right in my eyes, proclaiming release each to his neighbor; and you cut a covenant before my face, in the house on which my name is called.
But you turned and profaned my name, and you brought back each his male servant and each his female servant, whom you had sent away free to their own soul, and you forced them to be to you male and female servants.
Therefore thus says the LORD: You have not listened to me, to proclaim release each to his brother and each to his neighbor. See, I am proclaiming release for you — the utterance of the LORD — to the sword, to the pestilence and to the famine; and I will make you a trembling to all the kingdoms of the earth.
And I will make the men who overstepped my covenant, who did not raise up the words of the covenant they cut before my face — the calf that they cut in two and passed between its pieces:
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 pieces of the calf —
I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their soul; and their carcasses will be food for the birds of the heavens and for the beasts of the earth.
And Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes I will give into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their soul, and into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon that has gone up from you.
See, I am commanding — the utterance of the LORD — and I will bring them back to this city, and they will fight against her and capture her and burn her with fire; and the cities of Judah I will make a desolation without inhabitant.