Zedekiah to Die in Babylon
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when
1Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army
2and all the kingdoms of the earth under his dominion and all the peoples were fighting against Jerusalem and all of its cities:
2
"Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Go and speak to
3Zedekiah king of Judah and say to him, 'Thus says the LORD:
4Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.
3
5You shall not escape from his hand but shall surely be captured and delivered into his hand.
6You shall see the king of Babylon eye to eye and speak with him face to face. And you shall go to Babylon.'
4
Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah!
7Thus says the LORD concerning you:
8'You shall not die by the sword.
5
You shall die in peace.
9And as spices were burned for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so people shall
10burn spices for you
11and lament for you, saying, "Alas, lord!"' For I have spoken the word, declares the LORD."
6
Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah, in Jerusalem,
7
when the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were left,
12Lachish and
13Azekah,
14for these were the only
15fortified cities of Judah that remained.
8
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after King Zedekiah
16had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem
17to make a proclamation of liberty to them,
9
18that everyone should set free his Hebrew slaves, male and female,
19so that no one should enslave a Jew, his brother.
10
And they obeyed, all the officials and all the people who had entered into the covenant that everyone would set free his slave, male or female, so that they would not be enslaved again. They obeyed and set them free.
11
But afterward they turned around and took back the male and female slaves
20they had set free, and brought them into subjection as slaves.