Mishpatim

This translation was taken from the JPS Tanakh.

 Jeremiah 34:8-22; 33:25-26

Chapter 34

⁸ The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zede- kiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim a release among them — ⁹ that everyone should set free his Hebrew slaves, both male and female, and that no one should keep his fellow Judean enslaved.

¹⁰ Everyone, officials and people, who had entered into the covenant agreed to set their male and female slaves free and not keep them enslaved any longer; they complied and let them go. ¹¹ But afterward they turned about and brought back the men and women they had set free, and forced them into slavery again. ¹² Then it was that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord:

¹³ Thus said the Lord, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage, saying: ¹⁴ “In the seventh year each of you must let go any fellow Hebrew who may be sold to you; when he has served you six years, you must set him free.” But your fathers would not obey Me or give ear. ¹⁵ Lately you turned about and did what is proper in My sight, and each of you proclaimed a release to his countrymen; and you made a covenant accordingly before Me in the House which bears My name. ¹⁶ But now you have turned back and have profaned My name; each of you has brought back the men and women whom you had given their freedom, and forced them to be your slaves again.

¹⁷ Assuredly, thus said the Lord: You would not obey Me and proclaim a release, each to his kinsman and countryman. Lo! I proclaim your release — declares the Lord — to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine; and I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. ¹⁸ I will make the men who violated My covenant, who did not fulfill the terms of the covenant which they made before Me, ke] the calf which they cut in two so as to pass between the halves: ¹⁹ The officers of Judah and Jerusalem, the officials, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the halves of the calf ²⁰ shall be handed over to their enemies, to those who seek to kill them. Their carcasses shall become food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth. ²¹ I will hand over King Zedekiah of Judah and his officers to their enemies, who seek to kill them — to the army of the king of Babylon which has withdrawn from you. ²² I hereby give the command — declares the Lord — by which I will bring them back against this city. They shall attack it and capture it, and burn it down. I will make the towns of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.

Chapter 33 
²⁵ Thus said the Lord: As surely as I have established My covenant with day and night — the laws of heaven and earth — ²⁶ so I will never reject the offspring of Jacob and My servant David; I will never fail to take from his offspring rulers for the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Indeed, I will restore their fortunes and take them back in love.

Taken from Tanakh, The Holy Scriptures, (Philadelphia, Jerusalem: Jewish Publication Society) 1985.
Used by permission of The Jewish Publication Society. Copyright © 1962, 1992
Third Edition by the Jewish Publication Society.
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