Jeremiah 34-37

English Standard Version

Zedekiah to Die in Babylon

34 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when ^(A)Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army ^(B)and 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 ^(C)Zedekiah king of Judah and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: ^(D)Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire. ³^(E)You shall not escape from his hand but shall surely be captured and delivered into his hand. ^(F)You shall see the king of Babylon eye to eye and speak with him face to face. And you shall go to Babylon.’ ⁴Yet hear the word of the Lord, O Zedekiah king of Judah! ^(G)Thus says the Lord concerning you: ^(H)‘You shall not die by the sword. ⁵You shall die in peace. ^(I)And as spices were burned for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so people shall ^(J)burn spices for you ^(K)and lament for you, saying, “Alas, lord!”’ For I have spoken the word, declares the Lord.”

⁶Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah, in Jerusalem, ⁷when the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were left, ^(L)Lachish and ^(M)Azekah, ^(N)for these were the only ^(O)fortified cities of Judah that remained.

⁸The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after King Zedekiah ^(P)had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem ^(Q)to make a proclamation of liberty to them, ⁹^(R)that everyone should set free his Hebrew slaves, male and female, ^(S)so that no one should enslave a Jew, his brother. ¹⁰And 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. ¹¹But afterward they turned around and took back the male and female slaves ^(T)they had set free, and brought them into subjection as slaves. ¹²The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ¹³“Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I myself made a covenant with your fathers when ^(U)I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying, ¹⁴^(V)‘At the end of seven years each of you must set free the fellow Hebrew who has been sold to you and has served you six years; ^(W)you must set him free from your service.’ But ^(X)your fathers did not listen to me or incline their ears to me. ¹⁵You recently repented and did what was right in my eyes ^(Y)by proclaiming liberty, each to his neighbor, and ^(Z)you made a covenant before me in the ^(AA)house that is called by my name, ¹⁶but then you turned around ^(AB)and profaned my name when each of you took back his male and female slaves, ^(AC)whom you had set free according to their desire, and you brought them into subjection to be your slaves.

¹⁷“Therefore, thus says the Lord: You have not obeyed me ^(AD)by proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and to his neighbor; ^(AE)behold, I proclaim to you liberty ^(AF)to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine, declares the Lord. ^(AG)I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. ¹⁸And the men who transgressed my covenant and did not keep the terms of ^(AH)the covenant that they made before me, I will make them like^[a] ^(AI)the calf that they cut in two and passed between its parts— ¹⁹the officials of Judah, the officials of Jerusalem, ^(AJ)the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf. ²⁰And I will give them into the hand of their enemies ^(AK)and into the hand of those who seek their lives. ^(AL)Their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. ²¹And ^(AM)Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials I will give into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their lives, into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon ^(AN)which has withdrawn from you. ²²Behold, ^(AO)I will command, declares the Lord, and will ^(AP)bring them back to this city. ^(AQ)And they will fight against it and take it and burn it with fire. ^(AR)I will make the cities of Judah a desolation ^(AS)without inhabitant.”

The Obedience of the Rechabites

35 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of ^(AT)Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: ²“Go to the house of the ^(AU)Rechabites and speak with them and bring them to the house of the Lord, into one of ^(AV)the chambers; then offer them wine to drink.” ³So I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah and his brothers and all his sons and the whole house of the Rechabites. ⁴I brought them to the house of the Lord into ^(AW)the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, ^(AX)the man of God, which was near ^(AY)the chamber of the officials, above ^(AZ)the chamber of ^(BA)Maaseiah the son of Shallum, ^(BB)keeper of the threshold. ⁵Then I set before the Rechabites pitchers full of wine, and cups, and I said to them, “Drink wine.” ⁶But they answered, “We will drink no wine, for ^(BC)Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, ‘You shall not drink wine, neither you nor your sons forever. ⁷You shall not build a house; you shall not sow seed; you shall not plant or have a vineyard; but you shall live in tents all your days, ^(BD)that you may live many days in the land where you sojourn.’ ⁸We have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, to drink no wine all our days, ourselves, our wives, our sons, or our daughters, ⁹and not to build houses to dwell in. We have no vineyard or field or seed, ¹⁰but we have lived in tents and have obeyed and done all that Jonadab our father commanded us. ¹¹But ^(BE)when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against the land, we said, ‘Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of ^(BF)the army of the Chaldeans and ^(BG)the army of the Syrians.’ ^(BH)So we are living in Jerusalem.”

¹²Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ¹³“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Go and say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, ^(BI)Will you not receive instruction and listen to my words? declares the Lord. ¹⁴The command that Jonadab the son of Rechab gave to his sons, to drink no wine, has been kept, and they drink none to this day, for they have obeyed their father's command. I have spoken to you ^(BJ)persistently, but you have not listened to me. ¹⁵I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, sending them ^(BK)persistently, saying, ^(BL)‘Turn now every one of you from his evil way, and amend your deeds, and ^(BM)do not go after other gods to serve them, and then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to you and your fathers.’ ^(BN)But you did not incline your ear or listen to me. ¹⁶The sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have kept the command that their father gave them, but this people has not obeyed me. ¹⁷Therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing upon Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the disaster that I have pronounced against them, ^(BO)because I have spoken to them and they have not listened, ^(BP)I have called to them and they have not answered.”

¹⁸But to the house of the Rechabites Jeremiah said, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the command of Jonadab your father and kept all his precepts and done all that he commanded you, ¹⁹therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Jonadab the son of Rechab shall never lack a man ^(BQ)to stand before me.”

Jehoiakim Burns Jeremiah's Scroll

36 In the ^(BR)fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ²“Take ^(BS)a scroll and ^(BT)write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and ^(BU)Judah ^(BV)and all the nations, ^(BW)from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah until today. ³^(BX)It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the disaster that I intend to do to them, ^(BY)so that every one may turn from his evil way, and ^(BZ)that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

⁴Then Jeremiah called ^(CA)Baruch the son of Neriah, and ^(CB)Baruch wrote on ^(CC)a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord that he had spoken to him. ⁵And Jeremiah ordered ^(CD)Baruch, saying, ^(CE)“I am banned from going to the house of the Lord, ⁶so you are to go, and ^(CF)on a day of fasting in the hearing of all the people in the Lord's house you shall read the words of the Lord from the scroll that you have written at my dictation. You shall read them also in the hearing of all the men of Judah who come out of their cities. ⁷^(CG)It may be that their plea for mercy will come before the Lord, ^(CH)and that every one will turn from his evil way, for great is the anger and wrath that the Lord has pronounced against this people.” ⁸And Baruch the son of Neriah did all that Jeremiah the prophet ordered him about reading from the scroll the words of the Lord in the Lord's house.

⁹^(CI)In the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, ^(CJ)in the ninth month, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem ^(CK)proclaimed a fast before the Lord. ¹⁰Then, in the hearing of all the people, Baruch read the words of Jeremiah from the scroll, in the house of the Lord, in ^(CL)the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the secretary, which was in the upper court, at the entry of the New Gate of the Lord's house.

¹¹When Micaiah the son of Gemariah, son of ^(CM)Shaphan, heard all the words of the Lord from the scroll, ¹²he went down to the king's house, into the secretary's chamber, and ^(CN)all the officials were sitting there: ^(CO)Elishama the secretary, ^(CP)Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, ^(CQ)Elnathan ^(CR)the son of Achbor, ^(CS)Gemariah the son of ^(CT)Shaphan, Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the officials. ¹³And Micaiah told them all the words that he had heard, when Baruch read the scroll in the hearing of the people. ¹⁴Then all the officials sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, son of ^(CU)Shelemiah, son of Cushi, to say to Baruch, “Take in your hand the scroll that you read in the hearing of the people, and come.” So Baruch the son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand and came to them. ¹⁵And they said to him, “Sit down and read it.” So Baruch read it to them. ¹⁶When they heard all the words, they turned one to another in fear. And they said to Baruch, ^(CV)“We must report all these words to the king.” ¹⁷Then they asked Baruch, “Tell us, please, how did you write all these words? Was it at his dictation?” ¹⁸Baruch answered them, “He dictated all these words to me, ^(CW)while I wrote them with ink on the scroll.” ¹⁹Then the officials said to Baruch, “Go and hide, you and Jeremiah, and let no one know where you are.”

²⁰So they went into the court to the king, having put the scroll in ^(CX)the chamber of Elishama the secretary, and they reported all the words to the king. ²¹Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it from the chamber of Elishama the secretary. And Jehudi read it to the king and all the officials who stood beside the king. ²²It was ^(CY)the ninth month, and the king was sitting in ^(CZ)the winter house, and there was a fire burning in the fire pot before him. ²³As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them into the fire in the fire pot, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the fire pot. ²⁴Yet ^(DA)neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words was afraid, ^(DB)nor did they tear their garments. ²⁵Even when ^(DC)Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah ^(DD)urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. ²⁶And the king commanded Jerahmeel the ^(DE)king's son and Seraiah the son of Azriel and ^(DF)Shelemiah the son of Abdeel to seize ^(DG)Baruch the secretary and Jeremiah the prophet, but the Lord hid them.

²⁷Now after the king had burned the scroll with the words that Baruch wrote at Jeremiah's dictation, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ²⁸“Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned. ²⁹And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, ‘Thus says the Lord, You have burned this scroll, saying, ^(DH)“Why have you written in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and will cut off from it man and beast?” ³⁰Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: ^(DI)He shall have none ^(DJ)to sit on the throne of David, ^(DK)and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day and the frost by night. ³¹^(DL)And I will punish him and his offspring and his servants for their iniquity. I will bring upon them and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and upon the people of Judah all the disaster that I have pronounced against them, but they would not hear.’”

³²Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to ^(DM)Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who ^(DN)wrote on it at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to them.

Jeremiah Warns Zedekiah

37 ^(DO)Zedekiah the son of Josiah, ^(DP)whom Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah, reigned instead of ^(DQ)Coniah the son of Jehoiakim. ²^(DR)But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of the Lord that he spoke through Jeremiah the prophet.

³King Zedekiah sent ^(DS)Jehucal the son of ^(DT)Shelemiah, and ^(DU)Zephaniah the priest, the son of ^(DV)Maaseiah, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “Please ^(DW)pray for us to the Lord our God.” ⁴^(DX)Now Jeremiah was still going in and out among the people, ^(DY)for he had not yet been put in prison. ⁵^(DZ)The army of Pharaoh had come out of Egypt. And when ^(EA)the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard news about them, ^(EB)they withdrew from Jerusalem.

⁶Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet: ⁷“Thus says the Lord, God of Israel: Thus shall you say to the king of Judah who ^(EC)sent you to me to inquire of me, ‘Behold, ^(ED)Pharaoh's army that came to help you is about to ^(EE)return to Egypt, to its own land. ⁸And ^(EF)the Chaldeans shall come back and fight against this city. ^(EG)They shall capture it and burn it with fire. ⁹Thus says the Lord, Do not deceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will surely go away from us,” for they will not go away. ¹⁰^(EH)For even if you should defeat the whole army of Chaldeans who are fighting against you, and there remained of them only wounded men, every man in his tent, they would rise up and ^(EI)burn this city with fire.’”

Jeremiah Imprisoned

¹¹Now when ^(EJ)the Chaldean army had withdrawn from Jerusalem at the approach of Pharaoh's army, ¹²Jeremiah set out from Jerusalem to go to ^(EK)the land of Benjamin ^(EL)to receive his portion there ^(EM)among the people. ¹³When he was at ^(EN)the Benjamin Gate, a sentry there named Irijah the son of ^(EO)Shelemiah, son of Hananiah, seized Jeremiah the prophet, saying, ^(EP)“You are deserting to the Chaldeans.” ¹⁴And Jeremiah said, “It is a lie; I am not deserting to the Chaldeans.” But Irijah would not listen to him, and seized Jeremiah and brought him to ^(EQ)the officials. ¹⁵And the officials were enraged at Jeremiah, and they beat him ^(ER)and imprisoned him in the house of Jonathan the secretary, for it had been made a prison.

¹⁶^(ES)When Jeremiah had come to the dungeon cells and remained there many days, ¹⁷King Zedekiah sent for him and received him. The king questioned him ^(ET)secretly in his house and said, “Is there any word from the Lord?” Jeremiah said, “There is.” Then he said, ^(EU)“You shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.” ¹⁸Jeremiah also said to King Zedekiah, “What wrong have I done to you or your servants or this people, ^(EV)that you have put me in prison? ¹⁹^(EW)Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, saying, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you and against this land’? ²⁰Now hear, please, O my lord the king: ^(EX)let my humble plea come before you and ^(EY)do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the secretary, lest I die there.” ²¹So King Zedekiah gave orders, and they committed Jeremiah to ^(EZ)the court of the guard. And a loaf of bread was given him daily from the bakers' street, ^(FA)until all the bread of the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in ^(FB)the court of the guard.