1 While Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms and peoples in the empire he ruled were fighting against Jerusalem and all its surrounding towns, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:2 "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Go to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him, 'This is what the LORD says: I am about to give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down.3 You will not escape from his grasp but will surely be captured and given into his hands. You will see the king of Babylon with your own eyes, and he will speak with you face to face. And you will go to Babylon.4 "'Yet hear the LORD's promise to you, Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the LORD says concerning you: You will not die by the sword;5 you will die peacefully. As people made a funeral fire in honor of your predecessors, the kings who ruled before you, so they will make a fire in your honor and lament, "Alas, master!" I myself make this promise, declares the LORD.'"6 Then Jeremiah the prophet told all this to Zedekiah king of Judah, in Jerusalem,7 while the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah that were still holding out —Lachish and Azekah. These were the only fortified cities left in Judah.8 The word came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves.9 Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Hebrew in bondage.10 So all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their male and female slaves and no longer hold them in bondage. They agreed, and set them free.11 But afterward they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again.12 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:13 "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I said,14 'Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you six years, you must let them go free.' "Your ancestors, however, did not listen to me or pay attention to me.15 Recently you repented and did what is right in my sight: Each of you proclaimed freedom to your own people. You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name.16 But now you have turned around and profaned my name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again.17 "Therefore this is what the LORD says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom to your own people. So I now proclaim 'freedom' for you, declares the LORD —'freedom' to fall by the sword, plague and famine. I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth.18 Those who have violated my covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces.19 The leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests and all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the calf,20 I will deliver into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals.21 "I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them, to the army of the king of Babylon, which has withdrawn from you.22 I am going to give the order, declares the LORD, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, take it and burn it down. And I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there."

1 Verbum quod factum est ad Jeremiam a Domino quando Nabuchodonosor rex Babylonis, et omnis exercitus ejus, universaque regna terr, qu erant sub potestate manus ejus, et omnes populi, bellabant contra Jerusalem, et contra omnes urbes ejus, dicens : 2 Hc dicit Dominus Deus Isral : Vade, et loquere ad Sedeciam regem Juda, et dices ad eum : Hc dicit Dominus : Ecce ego tradam civitatem hanc in manus regis Babylonis, et succendet eam igni : 3 et tu non effugies de manu ejus, sed comprehensione capieris, et in manu ejus traderis : et oculi tui oculos regis Babylonis videbunt, et os ejus cum ore tuo loquetur, et Babylonem introibis. 4 Attamen audi verbum Domini, Sedecia, rex Juda : Hc dicit Dominus ad te : Non morieris in gladio, 5 sed in pace morieris : et secundum combustiones patrum tuorum, regum priorum qui fuerunt ante te, sic comburent te : et v domine, plangent te : quia verbum ego locutus sum, dicit Dominus. 6 Et locutus est Jeremias propheta ad Sedeciam regem Juda universa verba hc in Jerusalem. 7 Et exercitus regis Babylonis pugnabat contra Jerusalem, et contra omnes civitates Juda qu reliqu erant, contra Lachis et contra Azecha : h enim supererant de civitatibus Juda, urbes munit.8 Verbum quod factum est ad Jeremiam a Domino, postquam percussit rex Sedecias fdus cum omni populo in Jerusalem, prdicans, 9 ut dimitteret unusquisque servum suum et unusquisque ancillam suam, Hebrum et Hebram, liberos, et nequaquam dominarentur eis, id est, in Judo et fratre suo. 10 Audierunt ergo omnes principes et universus populus, qui inierant pactum ut dimitteret unusquisque servum suum et unusquisque ancillam suam liberos, et ultra non dominarentur eis : audierunt igitur, et dimiserunt. 11 Et conversi sunt deinceps : et retraxerunt servos et ancillas suas quos dimiserant liberos, et subjugaverunt in famulos et famulas. 12 Et factum est verbum Domini ad Jeremiam a Domino, dicens : 13 Hc dicit Dominus Deus Isral : Ego percussi fdus cum patribus vestris in die qua eduxi eos de terra gypti, de domo servitutis, dicens : 14 Cum completi fuerint septem anni, dimittat unusquisque fratrem suum Hebrum, qui venditus est ei : et serviet tibi sex annis, et dimittes eum a te liberum : et non audierunt patres vestri me, nec inclinaverunt aurem suam. 15 Et conversi estis vos hodie, et fecistis quod rectum est in oculis meis, ut prdicaretis libertatem unusquisque ad amicum suum : et inistis pactum in conspectu meo, in domo in qua invocatum est nomen meum super eam : 16 et reversi estis, et commaculastis nomen meum, et reduxistis unusquisque servum suum et unusquisque ancillam suam, quos dimiseratis ut essent liberi et su potestatis, et subjugastis eos ut sint vobis servi et ancill. 17 Propterea hc dicit Dominus : Vos non audistis me, ut prdicaretis libertatem unusquisque fratri suo et unusquisque amico suo : ecce ego prdico vobis libertatem, ait Dominus, ad gladium, ad pestem, et ad famem, et dabo vos in commotionem cunctis regnis terr. 18 Et dabo viros qui prvaricantur fdus meum, et non observaverunt verba fderis quibus assensi sunt in conspectu meo, vitulum quem conciderunt in duas partes, et transierunt inter divisiones ejus, 19 principes Juda et principes Jerusalem, eunuchi et sacerdotes, et omnis populus terr, qui transierunt inter divisiones vituli : 20 et dabo eos in manus inimicorum suorum, et in manus qurentium animam eorum, et erit morticinum eorum in escam volatilibus cli et bestiis terr. 21 Et Sedeciam regem Juda, et principes ejus, dabo in manus inimicorum suorum, et in manus qurentium animas eorum, et in manus exercituum regis Babylonis, qui recesserunt a vobis. 22 Ecce ego prcipio, dicit Dominus, et reducam eos in civitatem hanc, et prliabuntur adversus eam, et capient eam, et incendent igni : et civitates Juda dabo in solitudinem, eo quod non sit habitator.