IV. False Covenants, True Covenants (34:1-36:32)
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A. ZEDEKIAH'S COVENANT (34:1-22)
- A Word on the King's Personal Fate (34:1-7)
34 1 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh when Nebuchadrezzar,
king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth under
his dominion, and all the peoples were fighting against Jerusalem and
against all its cities:^2 Thus said Yahweh, God of Israel: Go, and you shall
say to Zedekiah, king of Judah, and you shall say to him:
Thus said Yahweh:
Look I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he
will take it and will burn it with fire.^3 And you, you will not escape
from his hand, but you will surely be captured and into his hand you
will be given. And your eyes shall see the eyes of the king of Babylon,
and his mouth shall speak to your mouth, and to Babylon yon sh~ 11 go.(^4) But hear the word of Yahweh, Zedekiah, king of Judah:
Thus said Yahweh concerning you:
You shall not die by the sword;^5 in peace you shall die; and like the
burnings for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so
shall they burn for you, and "Woe, lord!" they shall lament for you, for
the word I, I have spoken-oracle of Yahweh.
(^6) So Jeremiah, the prophet, spoke to Zedekiah, king of Judah, all these
words in Jerusalem.^7 And the army of the king of Babylon was fighting
against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah, the ones remaining to
Lachish and to Azekah, for they still remained among the cities of Judah,
cities of fortification.
RHETORIC AND COMPOSITION
MT 34: 1-7 = LXX 41: 1-7. The present chapter is a self-contained narrative re-
porting first a word brought to King Zedekiah about his personal fate in the war
with Babylon (vv 1-7), after which comes a harsh judgment on the king and
the people of Jerusalem for reneging on a covenant Zedekiah made to release
Hebrew slaves (vv 8-22). This narrative does not belong to the "Zedekiah Clus-
ter" of narrative prose located prior to the Book of Restoration (see Note for