Warning to Zedekiah

34 While Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms and peoples^(A) in the empire he ruled were fighting against Jerusalem^(B) and all its surrounding towns, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Go to Zedekiah^(C) king of Judah and tell him, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am about to give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down.^{(D) 3} You will not escape from his grasp but will surely be captured and given into his hands.^(E) You will see the king of Babylon with your own eyes, and he will speak with you face to face. And you will go to Babylon.

⁴ “‘Yet hear the Lord’s promise to you, Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the Lord says concerning you: You will not die by the sword;^{(F) 5} you will die peacefully. As people made a funeral fire^(G) in honor of your predecessors, the kings who ruled before you, so they will make a fire in your honor and lament, “Alas,^(H) master!” I myself make this promise, declares the Lord.’”

⁶ Then Jeremiah the prophet told all this to Zedekiah king of Judah, in Jerusalem, ⁷ while the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah that were still holding out—Lachish^(I) and Azekah.^(J) These were the only fortified cities left in Judah.

Freedom for Slaves

⁸ The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people^(K) in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom^(L) for the slaves. ⁹ Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Hebrew in bondage.^{(M) 10} So all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their male and female slaves and no longer hold them in bondage. They agreed, and set them free. ¹¹ But afterward they changed their minds^(N) and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again.

¹² Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ¹³ “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your ancestors^(O) when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.^(P) I said, ¹⁴ ‘Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you six years, you must let them go free.’^[a](Q) Your ancestors, however, did not listen to me or pay attention^(R) to me. ¹⁵ Recently you repented and did what is right in my sight: Each of you proclaimed freedom to your own people.^(S) You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name.^{(T) 16} But now you have turned around^(U) and profaned^(V) my name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again.

¹⁷ “Therefore this is what the Lord says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom to your own people. So I now proclaim ‘freedom’ for you,^(W) declares the Lord—‘freedom’ to fall by the sword, plague^(X) and famine.^(Y) I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth.^{(Z) 18} Those who have violated my covenant^(AA) and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces.^{(AB) 19} The leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials,^(AC) the priests and all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the calf, ²⁰ I will deliver^(AD) into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them.^(AE) Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals.^(AF)

²¹ “I will deliver Zedekiah^(AG) king of Judah and his officials^(AH) into the hands of their enemies^(AI) who want to kill them, to the army of the king of Babylon,^(AJ) which has withdrawn^(AK) from you. ²² I am going to give the order, declares the Lord, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, take^(AL) it and burn^(AM) it down. And I will lay waste^(AN) the towns of Judah so no one can live there.”

25 So in the ninth^(A) year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar^(B) king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army. He encamped outside the city and built siege works^(C) all around it. ² The city was kept under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

³ By the ninth day of the fourth^[a] month the famine^(D) in the city had become so severe that there was no food for the people to eat. ⁴ Then the city wall was broken through,^(E) and the whole army fled at night through the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Babylonians^[b] were surrounding^(F) the city. They fled toward the Arabah,^{[c] 5} but the Babylonian^[d] army pursued the king and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. All his soldiers were separated from him and scattered,^{(G) 6} and he was captured.^(H)

He was taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah,^(I) where sentence was pronounced on him. ⁷ They killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. Then they put out his eyes, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.^(J)

⁸ On the seventh day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard, an official of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. ⁹ He set fire^(K) to the temple of the Lord, the royal palace and all the houses of Jerusalem. Every important building he burned down.^{(L) 10} The whole Babylonian army under the commander of the imperial guard broke down the walls^(M) around Jerusalem. ¹¹ Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard carried into exile^(N) the people who remained in the city, along with the rest of the populace and those who had deserted to the king of Babylon.^{(O) 12} But the commander left behind some of the poorest people^(P) of the land to work the vineyards and fields.

¹³ The Babylonians broke^(Q) up the bronze pillars, the movable stands and the bronze Sea that were at the temple of the Lord and they carried the bronze to Babylon. ¹⁴ They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, dishes^(R) and all the bronze articles^(S) used in the temple service. ¹⁵ The commander of the imperial guard took away the censers and sprinkling bowls—all that were made of pure gold or silver.^(T)

¹⁶ The bronze from the two pillars, the Sea and the movable stands, which Solomon had made for the temple of the Lord, was more than could be weighed. ¹⁷ Each pillar^(U) was eighteen cubits^[e] high. The bronze capital on top of one pillar was three cubits^[f] high and was decorated with a network and pomegranates of bronze all around. The other pillar, with its network, was similar.

¹⁸ The commander of the guard took as prisoners Seraiah^(V) the chief priest, Zephaniah^(W) the priest next in rank and the three doorkeepers.^{(X) 19} Of those still in the city, he took the officer in charge of the fighting men, and five royal advisers. He also took the secretary who was chief officer in charge of conscripting the people of the land and sixty of the conscripts who were found in the city. ²⁰ Nebuzaradan the commander took them all and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. ²¹ There at Riblah,^(Y) in the land of Hamath, the king had them executed.^(Z)

So Judah went into captivity,^(AA) away from her land.^(AB)

²² Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon appointed Gedaliah^(AC) son of Ahikam,^(AD) the son of Shaphan, to be over the people he had left behind in Judah. ²³ When all the army officers and their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah as governor, they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah—Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan son of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth the Netophathite, Jaazaniah the son of the Maakathite, and their men. ²⁴ Gedaliah took an oath to reassure them and their men. “Do not be afraid of the Babylonian officials,” he said. “Settle down in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you.”

²⁵ In the seventh month, however, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was of royal blood, came with ten men and assassinated^(AE) Gedaliah and also the men of Judah and the Babylonians who were with him at Mizpah.^{(AF) 26} At this, all the people from the least to the greatest, together with the army officers, fled to Egypt^(AG) for fear of the Babylonians.

Jehoiachin Released^(AH)

²⁷ In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the year Awel-Marduk became king of Babylon, he released Jehoiachin^(AI) king of Judah from prison. He did this on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month. ²⁸ He spoke kindly^(AJ) to him and gave him a seat of honor^(AK) higher than those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. ²⁹ So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes and for the rest of his life ate regularly at the king’s table.^{(AL) 30} Day by day the king gave Jehoiachin a regular allowance as long as he lived.^(AM)

The Fall of Jerusalem^(A)(B)

¹⁵ The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers^(C) again and again,^(D) because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. ¹⁶ But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed^(E) at his prophets until the wrath^(F) of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.^{(G) 17} He brought up against them the king of the Babylonians,^[a](H) who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and did not spare young men^(I) or young women, the elderly or the infirm.^(J) God gave them all into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.^{(K) 18} He carried to Babylon all the articles^(L) from the temple of God, both large and small, and the treasures of the Lord’s temple and the treasures of the king and his officials. ¹⁹ They set fire^(M) to God’s temple^(N) and broke down the wall^(O) of Jerusalem; they burned all the palaces and destroyed^(P) everything of value there.^(Q)

²⁰ He carried into exile^(R) to Babylon the remnant, who escaped from the sword, and they became servants^(S) to him and his successors until the kingdom of Persia came to power. ²¹ The land enjoyed its sabbath rests;^(T) all the time of its desolation it rested,^(U) until the seventy years^(V) were completed in fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah.

39 ¹ In the ninth year of Zedekiah^(A) king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar^(B) king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army and laid siege^(C) to it. ² And on the ninth day of the fourth^(D) month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, the city wall^(E) was broken through.^{(F) 3} Then all the officials^(G) of the king of Babylon came and took seats in the Middle Gate: Nergal-Sharezer of Samgar, Nebo-Sarsekim a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer a high official and all the other officials of the king of Babylon. ⁴ When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled; they left the city at night by way of the king’s garden, through the gate between the two walls,^(H) and headed toward the Arabah.^[a](I)

⁵ But the Babylonian^[b] army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah^(J) in the plains of Jericho. They captured^(K) him and took him to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah^(L) in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced sentence on him. ⁶ There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes and also killed all the nobles^(M) of Judah. ⁷ Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes^(N) and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon.^(O)

⁸ The Babylonians^[c] set fire^(P) to the royal palace and the houses of the people and broke down the walls^(Q) of Jerusalem. ⁹ Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard carried into exile to Babylon the people who remained in the city, along with those who had gone over to him,^(R) and the rest of the people.^{(S) 10} But Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard left behind in the land of Judah some of the poor people, who owned nothing; and at that time he gave them vineyards and fields.

¹¹ Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had given these orders about Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard: ¹² “Take him and look after him; don’t harm^(T) him but do for him whatever he asks.” ¹³ So Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard, Nebushazban a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer a high official and all the other officers^(U) of the king of Babylon ¹⁴ sent and had Jeremiah taken out of the courtyard of the guard.^(V) They turned him over to Gedaliah^(W) son of Ahikam,^(X) the son of Shaphan,^(Y) to take him back to his home. So he remained among his own people.^(Z)

¹⁵ While Jeremiah had been confined in the courtyard of the guard, the word of the Lord came to him: ¹⁶ “Go and tell Ebed-Melek^(AA) the Cushite, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I am about to fulfill my words^(AB) against this city—words concerning disaster,^(AC) not prosperity. At that time they will be fulfilled before your eyes. ¹⁷ But I will rescue^(AD) you on that day, declares the Lord; you will not be given into the hands of those you fear. ¹⁸ I will save^(AE) you; you will not fall by the sword^(AF) but will escape with your life,^(AG) because you trust^(AH) in me, declares the Lord.’”