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¹ The Word which was to Jeremiah from Jehovah when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth (because his hand rules), and all the peoples fought against Jerusalem, and against all its cities, saying,² So says Jehovah, the God of Israel: Go and speak to Zedekiah, king of Judah, and tell him, So says Jehovah, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.³ And you shall not escape out of his hand, but capturing shall be captured and delivered into his hand. And your eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak, his mouth with your mouth; and you shall go to Babylon.⁴ Yet hear the Word of Jehovah, O Zedekiah, king of Judah: So says Jehovah concerning you, You shall not die by the sword.⁵ You shall die in peace. And as the burnings of spices for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so they shall burn spices for you, saying , Ah, lord! They willwail for you. For I have spoken the Word, saysJehovah.⁶ And Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these Words to Zedekiah, king of Judah, in Jerusalem,⁷ when the king of Babylon's army fought against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that remained; against Lachish, and against Azekah; for these fortified cities remained of the cities of Judah.

⁸ The Word that was to Jeremiah from Jehovah after King Zedekiah had cut a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them,⁹ that each man should release his male slave, and each man his female slave, if a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, to go free, that not any should enslave a Jew, a man, his brother among them.¹⁰ And all the rulers obeyed, and all the people who had entered into the covenant allowed them to go free, each man his male slave, and each man his female slave; so that not any shouldenslave among them any more; and they obeyedand let them go.¹¹ But afterward they turned and caused to return the male slaves and the female slaves whom they sent away. And they subjected them for male slaves and for female slaves.¹² For this reason the Word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying,¹³ So says Jehovah, the God of Israel: I cut a covenant with your fathers in the day I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying,¹⁴ At the end of seven years each man should let go his brother who is a Hebrew, who has been sold to him. When he has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you. But your fathers did not listen to Me nor stretch out their ear.¹⁵ And you had turned today, and you did right in My eyes, to call for liberty, each man to his neighbor. And you cut a covenant before Me in the house on which is called My name.¹⁶ But you turned and profaned My name, and each man caused his male slave, and each man his female slave, to return whom you had sent away according to their desire. And you subjected them to be slaves and female slaves to you.¹⁷ So Jehovah says this: You have not listened to Me, to call for liberty, each man to his brother, and each man to his neighbor. Behold, I call for freedom to you, says Jehovah: to the sword, to the plague, and to the famine. And I will give you for a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.¹⁸ And I will give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not stood on the words of the covenant which they have cut with Me when they cut the calf in two, and passed between its parts,¹⁹ the rulers of Judah and the rulers of Jerusalem, the eunuchs and the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf;²⁰ I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those seeking their life. And their dead bodies shall be for food to the birds of the heavens, and to the beasts of the earth.²¹ And I will give Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his rulers, into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those seeking their life, even into the hand of the king of Babylon's army that has gone up from you.²² Behold, I will command and cause them to return to this city, says Jehovah. And they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire. And I will make the cities of Judah a ruin, without a soul to live in it.