1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD while Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, with all his army and all the kingdoms of the earth under the rule of his hand and all the peoples, was making war on Jerusalem and on all its towns:
2 "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Go and say to Zedekiah king of Judah, tell him, 'Thus says the LORD: See, I am handing this city over to the king of Babylon, and he will set it on fire.
3 And you yourself will not get away from his hand; you will certainly be seized and handed over to him. Your eyes will look into the eyes of the king of Babylon, his mouth will speak with your mouth, and you will go to Babylon.'
4 But hear the word of the LORD, Zedekiah king of Judah! Thus says the LORD about you: 'You will not die by the sword.
5 In peace you will die; and as they burned spices for your fathers, the earlier kings who came before you, so they will burn them for you and lament for you, "Alas, lord!" For it is I who have spoken the word, declares the LORD.'"
6 So Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem,
7 while the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the towns of Judah that were left, against Lachish and against Azekah; for these alone remained of the cities of Judah as fortified cities.
8 This is 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,
9 so that each would let his Hebrew slave, male or female, go free, and no one would hold a fellow Jew, his brother, as a slave.
10 All the officials and all the people who had entered the covenant listened: each would let his male slave and his female slave go free and no longer hold them as slaves. They listened and let them go.
11 But afterward they turned back and brought back the male and female slaves they had let go free, and forced them into servitude as male and female slaves.
12 So the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
13 "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I myself cut a covenant with your fathers on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves, saying,
14 'At the end of seven years each of you is to let go his Hebrew brother who has been sold to you; he will serve you six years, and then you are to let him go free from you.' But your fathers did not listen to me or turn their ear.
15 You yourselves had turned back today and done what is right in my eyes by proclaiming liberty, each to his neighbor, and you cut a covenant before me in the house that is called by my name.
16 But you turned around and profaned my name: each of you brought back his male and female slaves, whom you had let go free at their own wish, and you forced them to be your male and female slaves again.
17 "So thus says the LORD: You have not listened to me by proclaiming liberty, each to his brother and each to his neighbor. See, I am proclaiming a liberty for you, declares the LORD, to the sword, to the pestilence and to the famine, and I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
18 And I will make the men who transgressed my covenant, who did not carry out the words of the covenant they cut before me, like the calf they cut in two and passed between its pieces:
19 the officials of Judah and the officials of Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the pieces of the calf.
20 I will give them into the hand of their enemies and the hand of those who seek their life; their corpses will become food for the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth.
21 And Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials I will give into the hand of their enemies and the hand of those who seek their life, into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, which has gone up from you.
22 See, I am giving the order, declares the LORD, and I will bring them back to this city; they will fight against it, take it and burn it with fire, and I will make the towns of Judah a waste with no one living there."