Jeremiah 34:2-22

Matthew^{(i) 2} Thus saieth the Lord God of Israel: Go, & speake to Zedekiah the kinge of Iuda, and tell him: The Lorde sendeth the this worde: Beholde, I wyll delyuer this cytie into the hande of the kinge of Babylon, he shal burne it, ³ and thou shalt not escape his handes, but shalt be led awaye presoner, and delyuered into hys power. Thou shalt loke the kinge of Babylon in the face, and he shal speake wt the mouth to mouth, & then shalt thou go to Babylon. ⁴ Yet heare the worde of the Lorde, O Zedekiah thou Kynge of Iuda. Thus sayeth the Lorde vnto the: Thou shalt not be slayne with the swerde, ⁵ but shalt dye in peace. Lyke as thy forefathers the kinges thy progenitours, were brente, so shalt thou be brent also, & in the mourninge they shall saye: Oh Lorde. For thus haue I determined sayeth the Lorde. ⁶ Then spake Ieremy the Prophet all these wordes vnto Zedekiah king of Iuda in Ierusalem: ⁷ what tyme as the kinge of Babylons hoste beseged Ierusalem, and the remnaunt of the cytyes: Namely, Lachis, and Azecah, whiche yet remayned of the stronge defensed cities of Iuda. ⁸ These are the wordes that the Lord spake vnto Ieremy the Prophete, when Zedekiah was agreed with al the people at Ierusalem, that there shoulde be proclamed a lyberte, ⁹ so that euery man shoulde let his seruaunt and handmayde go fre, Hebrue and Hebruesse, & no Iewe to holde his brother as a bond man. ¹⁰ Now as they had consented, euen so they were obedient, and let them go fre. ¹¹ But afterward they repented, & toke agayne the seruauntes and handemaydens, whome they had let go fre, and so made them bonde agayne. ¹² For the whiche cause the worde of the Lord came vnto Ieremy from the Lorde him selfe, saying. ¹³ Thus sayeth the Lorde God of Israell: I made a couenaunt with youre fathers when I brought them oute of Egypte, (that they shoulde no more be bondmen) sayinge: ¹⁴ When seuen yeares are oute, euery man shall let his bought seruaunte an Hebrue go fre, yf he haue serued him syxe yeares. But your fathers obeyed me not, and herkened not vnto me. ¹⁵ As for you, ye were now turned, & dyd ryght before me, in that ye proclamed, euery man to let his neyghboure go fre, & in that ye made a couenaunt before me, in the temple that beareth my name. ¹⁶ But yet ye haue turned your selues agayne, and blasphemed my name. In this, that euery man hath required hys seruaunte and handmayden againe whom ye had let go quite and fre, and compelled them to serue you agayne, and to be youre bondmen. ¹⁷ And therfore thus sayeth the lord: ye haue not obeyed me, euery man to proclame fredom vnto his brother and neighbour: wherfore I wil call you vnto a fredome, sayeth the Lorde, euen vnto the swerde, to the pestilence, & to honger, & will make you to be plaged in all the kingedomes of the earthe. ¹⁸ Yea those men that haue broken my couenaunt, and not kepte the wordes of the appoyntment, which they made before me: when they hewed the calfe in two, and when there wente thorowe the two halfes therof. ¹⁹ The Princes of Iuda, the Princes of Ierusalem, the gelded men, the priestes and all the people of the lande, whiche wente thorowe the two sides of the calfe. ²⁰ Those men will I geue into the power of their enemies, & into the handes of them that folowe vpon their lyues. And their dead bodies shalbe meate for the foules of the ayre, and beastes of the felde. ²¹ As for Zedekiah the Kynge of Iuda and his Princes, I wil delyuer them into the power of their enemies, and of them that desyre to slaye them, and into the hande of the kynge of Babylons hoste whyche now is departed from you. ²² But thorowe my commaundement (sayeth the Lord) they shall come again before this cytye, they shall fyght agaynste it, winne it, and burne it. Moreouer I wyll laye the cities of Iuda so wast, that no man shal dwell therin.