JEREMIAH 34

[당찬 엄마]

Warning to Zedekiah

   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

peacefuly. 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.

Freedom for Slaves

   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."