1. The Lord spoke to me when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his army, supported by troops from all the nations and races that were subject to him, were attacking Jerusalem and its nearby towns.
2. The Lord, the God of Israel, told me to go and say to King Zedekiah of Judah, “I, the Lord, will hand this city over to the king of Babylonia, and he will burn it down.
3. You will not escape; you will be captured and handed over to him. You will see him face to face and talk to him in person; then you will go to Babylonia.
4. Zedekiah, listen to what I say about you. You will not be killed in battle.
5. You will die in peace, and as people burnt incense when they buried your ancestors, who were kings before you, in the same way they will burn incense for you. They will mourn over you and say, ‘Our king is dead!’ I, the Lord, have spoken.”
6. Then I gave this message to King Zedekiah in Jerusalem
7. while the army of the king of Babylonia was attacking the city. The army was also attacking Lachish and Azekah, the only other fortified cities left in Judah.
8. King Zedekiah and the people of Jerusalem had made an agreement to set free
9. their Hebrew slaves, both male and female, so that no one would have a fellow-Israelite as a slave.
18-19. The officials of Judah and of Jerusalem, together with the palace officials, the priests, and all the leaders, made a covenant with me by walking between the two halves of a bull that they had cut in two. But they broke the covenant and did not keep its terms. So I will do to these people what they did to the bull.