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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Jeremiah 34 NIV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/jeremiah/34.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="../topmenuchap/jeremiah/34-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NIV</a> > Jeremiah 34</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../jeremiah/33.htm" title="Jeremiah 33">◄</a> Jeremiah 34 <a href="../jeremiah/35.htm" title="Jeremiah 35">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New International Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/niv/esv/jeremiah/34.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><p class="sectionhead">Warning to Zedekiah</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/34-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>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 <span class="name">Lord</span>: <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/34-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span>“This is what the <span class="name">Lord</span>, the God of Israel, says: Go to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him, ‘This is what the <span class="name">Lord</span> says: I am about to give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/34-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span>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.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/34-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span>“ ‘Yet hear the <span class="name">Lord</span>’s promise to you, Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the <span class="name">Lord</span> says concerning you: You will not die by the sword; <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/34-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span>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 <span class="name">Lord</span>.’ ”</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/34-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span>Then Jeremiah the prophet told all this to Zedekiah king of Judah, in Jerusalem, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/34-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span>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.</p> <p class="sectionhead">Freedom for Slaves</p><p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/34-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span>The word came to Jeremiah from the <span class="name">Lord</span> after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/34-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span>Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Hebrew in bondage. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/34-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span>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. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/34-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span>But afterward they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/34-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span>Then the word of the <span class="name">Lord</span> came to Jeremiah: <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/34-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span>“This is what the <span class="name">Lord</span>, 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, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/34-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span>‘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.’ <span class="nivfootnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Deut. 15:12">a</a></sup></span> Your ancestors, however, did not listen to me or pay attention to me. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/34-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span>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. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/34-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span>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.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/34-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span>“Therefore this is what the <span class="name">Lord</span> says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom to your own people. So I now proclaim ‘freedom’ for you, declares the <span class="name">Lord</span>—‘freedom’ to fall by the sword, plague and famine. I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/34-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span>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. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/34-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span>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, <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/34-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span>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.</p> <p class="reg"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/34-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span>“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. <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/jeremiah/34-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span>I am going to give the order, declares the <span class="name">Lord</span>, 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.”</p><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><A name="footnotes"></a><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="nivfootnotesbot">a</span> <span class="fnverse">14</span> <span class="footnotebot">Deut. 15:12</span><br><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center"><p class="ntext"><a href="http://niv.scripturetext.com/version.htm">New International Version</a> (NIV)</p><p class="ntext2">Holy Bible, New International Version&reg, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by <a href="http://biblica.com">Biblica, Inc.</a>® Used by permission. 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