These are the words that the LORD spake unto Jeremiah the prophet, when Zedekiah was agreed with all the people at Jerusalem, that there should be proclaimed a liberty:

These are the words which the LORD spake unto Jeremiah, what time as Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and all his Hosts, out of all the kingdoms that were under his power, and all his people, fought against Jerusalem, and all the cities thereof.

Yea, those men that have broken my covenant, and not kept the words of the covenant which they made before me - when they hewed the calf in two, and when there went through the two halves thereof -

what time as the king of Babylon's host besieged Jerusalem, and the remnant of the cities: Namely, Lachish and Azekah, which yet remained of the strong defended cities of Judah.

"Thus sayeth the LORD God of Israel: Go, and speak to Zedekiah the king of Judah, and tell him, 'The LORD sendeth thee this word: Behold, I will deliver this city into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall burn it,

And therefore thus sayeth the LORD: Ye have not obeyed me, every man to proclaim freedom unto his brother and neighbour: wherefore, I will call you unto a freedom, sayeth the LORD - even unto the sword, to the pestilence, and to hunger, and will make you to be plagued in all the kingdoms of the earth.

But yet ye have turned yourselves again, and blasphemed my name, in this: That every man hath required his servant and handmaid again, whom ye had letten go quit and free, and compelled them to serve you again, and to be your bondmen.

so that every man should let his servant and handmaid go free, Hebrew and Hebrewess, and no Jew to hold his brother as a bond man.

but shalt die in peace. Like as thy forefathers the kings, thy progenitors, were burnt: so shalt thou be burnt also, and in the mourning they shall say, 'Oh, lord.' For thus have I determined, sayeth the LORD.'"

'When seven years are out, every man shall let his bought servant, a Hebrew go free, if he have served him six years.' But your fathers obeyed me not and hearkened not unto me.

As for you, ye were now turned, and did right before me, in that ye proclaimed, every man to let his neighbour go free, and in that ye made a covenant before me, in the temple that beareth my name.

"Thus sayeth the LORD God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers, when I brought them out of Egypt, that they should no more be bondmen: saying,

But afterward they repented, and took again the servants and the hand maidens, whom they had let go free, and so made them bond again.

As for Zedekiah the king of Judah and his princes, I will deliver them into the power of their enemies, and of them that desire to slay them, and into the hand of the king of Babylon's host, which now is departed from you.

Then spake Jeremiah the prophet all these words unto Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem:

Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah thou king of Judah. Thus sayeth the LORD unto thee: Thou shalt not be slain with the sword,

and thou shalt not escape his hands, but shalt be led away prisoner, and delivered into his power. Thou shalt look the king of Babylon in the face and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and then shalt thou go to Babylon.

The princes of Judah, the princes of Jerusalem, the gelded men, the Priests and all the people of the land, which went through the two sides of the calf.

Now as they had consented, even so they were obedient, and let them go free.

For the which cause the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah from the LORD himself, saying,

Those men will I give into the power of their enemies, and into the hands of them that follow upon their lives. And their dead bodies shall be meat for the fowls of the air, and beasts of the field.

But through my commandment, sayeth the LORD, they shall come again before this city, they shall fight against it, win it, and burn it. Moreover I will lay the cities of Judah so waste, that no man shall dwell therein."