Jeremiah 34 — Septuagint (LXX)

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon — with all his army, all the kingdoms of the lands under his rule, and all the peoples — was fighting against Jerusalem and all its surrounding cities:

This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah. Say to him — This is what the LORD says: I am going to hand this city over to the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.

And you will not escape from his hand. You will certainly be seized and handed over to him. Your eyes will see the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he will speak to you face to face, and you will go to Babylon.

Yet hear the word of the LORD, Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the LORD says concerning you: You will not die by the sword.

You will die in peace. And just as they burned spices for your ancestors, the former kings who preceded you, so they will burn spices for you, and they will mourn for you, saying, 'Alas, lord!' For I myself have spoken this word, declares the LORD.

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 remaining cities of Judah — against Lachish and Azekah, for these were the only fortified cities left among the cities of Judah.

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had cut a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim liberty to them —

that each person should release his male servant and his female servant — any Hebrew man or Hebrew woman — setting them free, so that no one would enslave a fellow Judean, his own brother.

All the officials and all the people who had entered the covenant obeyed — each releasing his male servant and his female servant, setting them free and no longer enslaving them. They obeyed and released them.

But afterward they reversed course and took back the male servants and female servants whom they had set free, and they forced them back into servitude as slaves.

Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I myself cut a covenant with your ancestors on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying:

At the end of seven years, each of you must release his Hebrew brother who has been sold to you; after he has served you for six years, you must send him away free from you. But your ancestors did not listen to me or incline their ear.

You yourselves recently turned and did what was right in my eyes by proclaiming liberty to one another, and you cut a covenant before me in the house that bears my name.

But then you reversed course and profaned my name. Each of you took back his male servant and his female servant whom you had set free according to their desire, and you forced them into subjection to be your slaves again.

Therefore this is what the LORD says: You have not obeyed me by proclaiming liberty to one another — each to his brother and each to his neighbor. So now I am proclaiming liberty for you, declares the LORD — liberty to the sword, to the plague, and to the famine. I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

I will hand over the people who violated my covenant, who did not uphold the terms of the covenant that they cut before me — the calf that they cut in two and passed between its halves —

the officials of Judah, the officials of Jerusalem, the court officers, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the halves of the calf —

I will hand them over to their enemies, to those who seek their lives. Their corpses will become food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.

And Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials I will hand over to their enemies, to those who seek their lives, and to the army of the king of Babylon — the ones who have withdrawn from you.

I am about 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 with fire. The cities of Judah I will make a desolation without inhabitant.