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Thus says the LORD, the God of Yisra'el, Go, and speak to Tzidkiyahu king of Yehudah, and tell him, Thus says the LORD, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Bavel, and he shall burn it with fire:
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and you shall not escape out of his hand, but shall surely be taken, and delivered into his hand; and your eyes shall see the eyes of the king of Bavel, and he shall speak with you mouth to mouth, and you shall go to Bavel.
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Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Tzidkiyahu king of Yehudah: thus says the LORD concerning you, You shall not die by the sword;
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you shall die in shalom; and with the burnings of your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so shall they make a burning for you; and they shall lament you, [saying], Ah Lord! for I have spoken the word, says the LORD.
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Then Yirmeyahu the prophet spoke all these words to Tzidkiyahu king of Yehudah in Yerushalayim,
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when the king of Bavel's army was fighting against Yerushalayim, and against all the cities of Yehudah that were left, against Lakhish and against `Azeka; for these [alone] remained of the cities of Yehudah [as] fortified cities.
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The word that came to Yirmeyahu from the LORD, after that the king Tzidkiyahu had made a covenant with all the people who were at Yerushalayim, to proclaim liberty to them;
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that every man should let his man-servant, and every man his maid-servant, who is a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, go free; that none should make bondservants of them, [to wit], of a Yehudi his brother.
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All the princes and all the people obeyed, who had entered into the covenant, that everyone should let his man-servant, and everyone his maid-servant, go free, that none should make bondservants of them any more; they obeyed, and let them go:
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but afterwards they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.
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Therefore the word of the LORD came to Yirmeyahu from the LORD, saying,