1. The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord while Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and all his army and all the earth’s kingdoms under his rule, and all the peoples were attacking Jerusalem and all her cities:
2. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Go to Zedekiah, king of Judah, and tell him: Thus says the Lord: I am handing this city over to the king of Babylon; he will burn it with fire.
3. You yourself shall not escape his hand; rather you will be captured and fall into his hand. You shall see the king of Babylon eye to eye and speak to him face to face. Then you shall go to Babylon.
4. Just hear the word of the Lord, Zedekiah, king of Judah! Then, says the Lord concerning you, you shall not die by the sword.
5. You shall die in peace, and they will burn spices for you as they did for your ancestors, the earlier kings who preceded you, and they shall make lament over you, “Alas, Lord.” I myself make this promise—oracle of the Lord.
6. Jeremiah the prophet told all these things to Zedekiah, king of Judah, in Jerusalem,
7. while the army of the king of Babylon was attacking Jerusalem and the remaining cities of Judah, Lachish, and Azekah. Only these fortified cities were left standing out of all the cities of Judah!
8. This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom:
9. Everyone must free their Hebrew slaves, male and female, so that no one should hold another Judahite in servitude.
10. All the princes and the people who entered this covenant agreed to set free their slaves, their male and female servants, so that they should no longer be in servitude. But even though they agreed and freed them,
11. afterward they took back their male and female servants whom they had set free and again forced them into servitude.