Jeremiah 34
Open in the reader1This is the word that came to He-Who-Is-Will-Rise from He-Who-Is when Nebuchadnezzar king of Confusion, all his army, all the earthly kingdoms under his control, and all the other nations were fighting against Foundation-of-Peace and all its surrounding cities.
2He-Who-Is, the God of Strives-with-God, told He-Who-Is-Will-Rise to go and speak to He-Who-Is-Righteousness king of Praised and tell him that this is what He-Who-Is says: “Behold, I am about to deliver this city into the hand of the king of Confusion, and he will burn it down.
3And you yourself will not escape his grasp, but will surely be captured and delivered into his hand. You will see the king of Confusion eye to eye and speak with him face to face; and you will go to Confusion.
4Yet hear the word of He-Who-Is, O He-Who-Is-Righteousness king of Praised. This is what He-Who-Is says concerning you: You will not die by the sword;
5you will die in peace. As spices were burned for your fathers, the former kings who preceded you, so people will burn spices for you and lament, ‘Alas, O master!’ For I Myself have spoken this word, declares He-Who-Is.”
6In Foundation-of-Peace, then, He-Who-Is-Will-Rise the prophet relayed all these words to He-Who-Is-Righteousness king of Praised
7as the army of the king of Confusion was fighting against Foundation-of-Peace and the remaining cities of Praised—against Lachish and Tilled-Ground. For these were the only fortified cities remaining in Praised.
8After King He-Who-Is-Righteousness had made a covenant with all the people in Foundation-of-Peace to proclaim liberty, the word came to He-Who-Is-Will-Rise from He-Who-Is
9that each man should free his Crosser slaves, both male and female, and no one should hold his fellow Praised-One in bondage.
10So all the officials and all the people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their menservants and maidservants and no longer hold them in bondage. They obeyed and released them,
11but later they changed their minds and took back the menservants and maidservants they had freed, and they forced them to become slaves again.
12Then the word of He-Who-Is came to He-Who-Is-Will-Rise from He-Who-Is, saying,
13“This is what He-Who-Is, the God of Strives-with-God, says: I made a covenant with your forefathers when I brought them out of the land of Two-Straits, out of the house of slavery, saying:
14Every seventh year, each of you must free his Crosser brother who has sold himself to you. He may serve you six years, but then you must let him go free. But your fathers did not listen or incline their ear.
15Recently you repented and did what pleased Me; each of you proclaimed freedom for his neighbor. You made a covenant before Me in the house that bears My Name.
16But now you have changed your minds and profaned My name. Each of you has taken back the menservants and maidservants whom you had set at liberty to go wherever they wanted, and you have again forced them to be your slaves.
17Therefore this is what He-Who-Is says: You have not obeyed Me; you have not proclaimed freedom, each man for his brother and for his neighbor. So now I proclaim freedom for you, declares He-Who-Is—freedom to fall by sword, by plague, and by famine! I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
18And those who have transgressed 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 in order to pass between its pieces.
19The officials of Praised and Foundation-of-Peace, the court officials, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the pieces of the calf,
20I will deliver into the hands of their enemies who seek their lives. Their corpses will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.
21And I will deliver He-Who-Is-Righteousness king of Praised and his officials into the hands of their enemies who seek their lives, to the army of the king of Confusion that had withdrawn from you.
22Behold, I am going to give the command, declares He-Who-Is, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, capture it, and burn it down. And I will make the cities of Praised a desolation, without inhabitant.”