Jeremiah 34

Jeremiah Warns Zedekiah

¹King Nebuchadnezzar had a large army made up of people from every kingdom in his empire. He and his army were attacking Jerusalem and all the nearby towns, when the Lord told me[#2 K 25.1-11; 2 Ch 36.17-21.; #34.1 See the note at 21.2.]

²to say to King Zedekiah:[#34.2 See the note at 1.3.]

⁶I went to Zedekiah and told him what the Lord had said.

⁷Meanwhile, the king of Babylonia was trying to break through the walls of Lachish, Azekah, and Jerusalem, the only three towns of Judah that had not been captured.

The People Break a Promise

^8-9-10King Zedekiah, his officials, and everyone else in Jerusalem made an agreement to free all Hebrew men and women who were slaves. No Jew would keep another as a slave. And so, all the Jewish slaves were given their freedom.[#34.8-10 See the note at 1.3.; #34.8-10 An earlier term for Israelite and Jewish.]

¹¹But those slave owners changed their minds and forced their former slaves back into slavery.

¹²That's when the Lord told me to say to the people: