3. 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.
4. ‘ “Yet hear the Lord’s promise to you, Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the Lord says concerning you: you will not die by the sword;
5. you will die peacefully. As people made a funeral fire in honour of your predecessors, the kings who ruled before you, so they will make a fire in your honour and lament, ‘Alas, master!’ I myself make this promise, declares the Lord.” ’
6. Then Jeremiah the prophet told all this to Zedekiah king of Judah, in Jerusalem,
7. 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.
8. The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves.
9. Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Hebrew in bondage.