Old/New Testament

Zedekiah to Die in Exile

34 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms of the earth of his dominion and all the people fought against Jerusalem and against all the cities, saying: ² Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him: Thus says the Lord: I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire. ³ And you will not escape out of his hand, but will surely be taken and delivered into his hand. And you will see the king of Babylon eye to eye, and he will speak with you face to face, and you will go to Babylon.

⁴ Yet hear the word of the Lord, O Zedekiah king of Judah! Thus says the Lord concerning you: You will not die by the sword. ⁵ But you will die in peace; and as spices were burned for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so they burn spices for you. And they will lament for you, saying, “Alas, lord!” For I have pronounced the word, says the Lord.

⁶ Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem, ⁷ when the king of Babylon’s army fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish and Azekah, for these fortified cities remained of the cities of Judah.

Slaves to be Free

⁸ This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord after the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to proclaim liberty to them: ⁹ that every man should let his male slave and every man his female slave, being a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, go free so that no one should keep them, a Jew his brother, in bondage. ¹⁰ Now when all the officials and all the people who had entered into the covenant heard that everyone should let his male slave and everyone his female slave go free, so that no one should keep them any more in bondage, then they obeyed and let them go. ¹¹ But afterward they turned around and caused the male slaves and the female slaves whom they had set free to return, and brought them into subjection for male slaves and female slaves.

¹² Therefore the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: ¹³ Thus says the Lord, 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: ¹⁴ “At the end of seven years, each of you shall set free his Hebrew brother who has been sold to you; and when he has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you.” But your fathers did not obey Me nor incline their ear. ¹⁵ You recently turned and did what was right in My sight by proclaiming liberty, every man to his neighbor; and you made a covenant before Me in the house that is called by My name. ¹⁶ But then you turned around and profaned My name when every one of you took back his male and female slaves, whom you had set free, at their pleasure, and you brought them into subjection to be your slaves.

¹⁷ Therefore thus says the Lord: You have not obeyed Me in proclaiming liberty, everyone to his brother and every man to his neighbor. I proclaim a liberty to you, says the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. ¹⁸ I will give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between the parts, ¹⁹ the officials of Judah and the officials of Jerusalem, the court officers, and the priests, and all the people of the land, who passed between the parts of the calf, ²⁰ I 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 to the fowl of heaven and to the beasts of the earth.

²¹ Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials 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. ²² I will command, says the Lord, and cause them to return to this city, and they will fight against it and take it and burn it with fire; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without an inhabitant.

The Rekabites’ Obedience

35 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying: ² Go to the house of the Rekabites and speak to them, and bring them into the house of the Lord, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.

³ Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons and the whole house of the Rekabites, ⁴ and I brought them into the house of the Lord, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan, the son of Igdaliah, a man of God, which was by the chamber of the officials, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door. ⁵ Then I set before the sons of the house of the Rekabites pots full of wine and cups, and I said to them, “Drink wine.”

⁶ But they said, “We will drink no wine. For Jonadab the son of Rekab our father commanded us, saying, ‘You shall not drink wine, neither you nor your sons forever. ⁷ You shall not build a house, sow seed, plant a vineyard, nor own one; but all your days you shall dwell in tents so that you may live many days in the land where you sojourn.’ ⁸ Thus we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rekab, our father, in all that he has charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, nor our daughters, ⁹ nor to build houses for us to dwell in; and we do not have vineyard, or field, or seed. ¹⁰ But we have lived in tents only and have obeyed and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us. ¹¹ But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, we said, ‘Come, and let us go to Jerusalem before the army of the Chaldeans and before the army of the Arameans.’ So we have dwelt in Jerusalem.”

¹² Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: ¹³ Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction by listening to My words? says the Lord. ¹⁴ The words of Jonadab the son of Rekab, that he commanded his sons not to drink wine, are performed. For to this day they drink none, but they obey their father’s commandment. However, I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you did not obey Me. ¹⁵ I also have sent to you all My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, “Return now every man from his evil way and amend your deeds, and do not go after other gods to serve them, and you will dwell in the land that I have given to you and to your fathers.” But you have not inclined your ear nor obeyed Me. ¹⁶ Indeed, the sons of Jonadab the son of Rekab have performed the commandment of their father, which he commanded them, but this people has not obeyed Me.

¹⁷ Therefore thus says the Lord God of Hosts, the God of Israel: I will bring upon Judah and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the disaster that I have pronounced against them; because I have spoken to them but they have not listened, and I have called them but they have not answered.

¹⁸ Jeremiah said to the house of the Rekabites: Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father and kept all his precepts and done according to all that he has commanded you, ¹⁹ therefore thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, Jonadab the son of Rekab shall not lack a man to stand before Me always.

Jeremiah’s Scroll Is Burned

36 In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: ² Take a scroll of a book, and write in it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and against Judah and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day. ³ It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the disaster which I intend to do to them, so that every man may turn from his evil way; then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.

⁴ Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah. And Baruch wrote on a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord which He had spoken to him. ⁵ Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, “I am shut in. I cannot go into the house of the Lord. ⁶ Therefore go and read from the scroll that you have written at my dictation the words of the Lord in the hearing of the people in the house of the Lord on a fast day. And also you shall read them in the ears of all Judah who come out of their cities. ⁷ Perhaps their supplication will come before the Lord, and everyone will turn from his evil way, for great is the anger and the fury that the Lord has pronounced against this people.”

⁸ Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading in the book the words of the Lord in the house of the Lord. ⁹ In the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, they proclaimed a fast before the Lord to all the people in Jerusalem and to all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem. ¹⁰ Then Baruch read from the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the Lord, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the higher court, at the entry of the New Gate of the house of the Lord, in the ears of all the people.

¹¹ When Micaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book all the words of the Lord, ¹² then he went down to the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber. And all the officials sat there, even Elishama the scribe, and Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, and Elnathan the son of Akbor, and Gemariah the son of Shaphan, and Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the other officials. ¹³ Then Micaiah declared to them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read the book in the ears of the people. ¹⁴ Then all the officials sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, “Take in your hand the scroll from which you have read in the ears of the people and come.” So Baruch the son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand and came to them. ¹⁵ They said to him, “Sit down now, and read it in our ears.”

So Baruch read it in their ears. ¹⁶ When they heard all the words, they turned to one another in fear and said to Baruch, “We will surely tell the king of all these words.” ¹⁷ They also asked Baruch, saying, “Tell us now, how did you write all these words? Was it at his mouth?”

¹⁸ Then Baruch answered them, “He pronounced all these words to me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book.”

¹⁹ Then the officials said to Baruch, “Go hide, you and Jeremiah, and let no man know where you are.”

²⁰ Then they went to the king in the court, but they laid up the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and told all the words in the ears of the king. ²¹ So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the scroll, and he took it out of Elishama the scribe’s chamber. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king and in the ears of all the officials who stood beside the king. ²² Now the king sat in the winter house in the ninth month, and there was a fire burning on the hearth before him. ²³ As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king cut it with a scribe’s knife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. ²⁴ Yet they were not afraid, nor did they tear their garments, neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words. ²⁵ Although Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah entreated the king not to burn the scroll, yet he would not listen to them. ²⁶ But the king commanded Jerahmeel the son of Hammelech, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel to seize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But the Lord hid them.

Jeremiah and Baruch Rewrite the Scroll

²⁷ Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after the king had burned the book and the words which Baruch had written at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying: ²⁸ Take again another scroll and write in it all the former words that were in the first book, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned. ²⁹ You shall say to Jehoiakim king of Judah: Thus says the Lord: You have burned this book, saying, Why have you written in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and will cause man and beast to cease from here? ³⁰ Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have no one to sit on the throne of David. And his dead body shall be cast out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. ³¹ I will also punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity. And I will bring upon them and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and upon the men of Judah all the disaster that I have pronounced against them; but they did not listen.

³² Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah who wrote in it from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And there were added to them many like words.

The Great Salvation

2 Therefore we should be more attentive to what we have heard, lest we drift away. ² For if the word spoken by angels was true, and every sin and disobedience received a just recompense, ³ how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation, which was first declared by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him? ⁴ God also bore them witness with signs and wonders and diverse miracles and with gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to His own will.

The Pioneer of Salvation

⁵ For it was not to the angels that He has subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. ⁶ But someone in a certain place testified, saying:

For in subjecting all things under him, He left nothing that is not subjected to him. Yet now we do not see all things subject to him. ⁹ But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels to suffer death, crowned with glory and honor, so that He, by the grace of God, should experience death for everyone.

¹⁰ For it was fitting for Him, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through suffering. ¹¹ For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of One. For this reason He is not ashamed to call them brothers, ¹² saying:

¹³ And again:

And again:

¹⁴ So then, as the children share in flesh and blood, He likewise took part in these, so that through death He might destroy him who has the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵ and deliver those who through fear of death were throughout their lives subject to bondage. ¹⁶ For surely He does not help the angels, but He helps the seed of Abraham. ¹⁷ Therefore, in all things it was necessary for Him to be made like His brothers, so that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in the things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. ¹⁸ For since He Himself suffered while being tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.