¹ The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth of his dominion , and all the people, fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of it, saying, ² So says the LORD, the God of Israel; Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, So says the LORD; See, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire ³ And you will not escape out of his hand, but will surely be taken, and delivered into his hand; and your eyes will see the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he will speak with you mouth to mouth, and you will go to Babylon. ⁴ Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah; So says the LORD of you, you will not die by the sword ⁵ But you will die in peace: and with the burnings of your fathers, the former kings which were before you, so will they burn odours for you; and they will lament you, saying, Ah lord! for I have pronounced the word, says the LORD. ⁶ Then 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 were left, against Lachish, and against Azekah: for these defensed cities remained of the cities of Judah. ⁸ This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them; ⁹ That every man should let his manservant, and every man his maidservant, being a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, go free; that none should serve himself of them, to wit, of a Jew his brother. ¹⁰ Now when all the princes, and all the people, which had entered into the covenant, heard that every one should let his manservant, and every one his maidservant, go free, that none should serve themselves of them any more, then they obeyed, and let them go. ¹¹ But afterward they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, who they have let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids. ¹² Therefore the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, ¹³ So says the LORD, the God of Israel; I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forward out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondmen, saying, ¹⁴ At the end of seven years let you go every man his brother a Hebrew, which has been sold to you; and when he has served you six years, you will let him go free from you: but your fathers listened not to me, neither inclined their ear. ¹⁵ And you were now turned, and had done right in my sight, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbour; and you had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name ¹⁶ But you turned and polluted my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, who you had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection, to be to you for servants and for handmaids. ¹⁷ Therefore so says the LORD; you have not listened to me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbour: see, I proclaim a liberty for you, says the LORD, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. ¹⁸ And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they have made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts of it, ¹⁹ The princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf; ²⁰ I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies will be for meat to the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth. ²¹ And Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes will I give into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, which are gone up from you. ²² See, I will command, says the LORD, and cause them to return to this city; and they will fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire: and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without an inhabitant.