1The word which came to Jeremiah from Yehovah, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth that were under his dominion, and all the peoples, were fighting against Jerusalem, and against all its cities, saying: 2Thus says Yehovah, the God of Israel, Go, and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, Thus says Yehovah, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire: 3and you shall not escape out of his hand, but shall surely be taken, and delivered into his hand; and your eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with you mouth to mouth, and you shall go to Babylon. 4Yet hear the word of Yehovah, O Zedekiah king of Judah: thus says Yehovah concerning you, You shall not die by the sword; 5you shall die in peace; and as with the burnings of your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so they shall make a burning for you; and they shall lament you, saying, Ah Lord! for I have spoken the word, says Yehovah. 6Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem, 7when the king of Babylon’s army was fighting against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish and against Azekah; for these alone remained of the cities of Judah as fortified cities. 8The word that came to Jeremiah from Yehovah, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them; 9that every man should let his male servant, and every man his female servant, who is a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, go free; that no one should make slaves of them, that is, of a Jew his brother. 10And all the princes and all the people who had entered into the covenant obeyed, that every one should let his male servant, and every one his female servant, go free, that no one should make slaves of them any more; they obeyed, and let them go: 11but afterward they turned, and caused the male servants and the female servants, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection as male servants and as female servants. 12Therefore the word of Yehovah came to Jeremiah from Yehovah, saying, 13Thus says Yehovah, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying, 14At the end of seven years you shall let go every man his brother who is a Hebrew, who has been sold to you, and has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you: but your fathers did not hearken to me, nor incline their ear. 15And you had now turned, and had done that which is right in my eyes, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor; and you had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name: 16but you turned and profaned my name, and caused every man his male servant, and every man his female servant, whom you had let go free at their pleasure, to return; and you brought them into subjection, to be your male servants and female servants. 17Therefore thus says Yehovah: You have not hearkened to me, to proclaim liberty, every man to his brother, and every man to his neighbor: behold, I proclaim to you a liberty, says Yehovah, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth. 18And I will give the men who have transgressed my covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts; 19the princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, who passed between the parts of the calf; 20I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life; and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth. 21And Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes I will give into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, which has gone away from you. 22Behold, I will command, says Yehovah, and cause them to return to this city; and they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire: and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.