Bible Strands
Jeremiah 34:21
And I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials into the hands of their enemies who seek their lives, to the army of the king of Babylon that had withdrawn from you.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh speaks through Jeremiah to Zedekiah and the Judahite officials during the Babylonian siege, immediately after the Babylonian army temporarily withdrew from Jerusalem.
The words — The phrase אֶתֵּן בְּיַד ('e.Ten be./Yad) literally renders "I will give into the hand of," establishing divine agency over the impending surrender.
The thread — This declaration of delivery precedes the actual capture and slaughter of Zedekiah’s sons and nobles recorded in Jeremiah 39:6 and 2 Kings 25:18, while the Babylonian return fulfills the command in Jeremiah 34:22.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that military maneuvers and political survival are subordinate to divine judgment, requiring a reader to accept that covenant failure produces irreversible historical consequences.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes will I give into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, which are gone up from you.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 39:6 There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also killed all the nobles of Judah.
- Jeremiah 52:24 The captain of the guard also took away Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest of second rank, and the three doorkeepers.
- 2 Kings 25:18 The captain of the guard also took away Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest of second rank, and the three doorkeepers.
- Jeremiah 37:5 Pharaoh’s army had left Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard the report, they withdrew from Jerusalem.
- Jeremiah 52:10 There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also killed all the officials of Judah.
- Ezekiel 17:16 ‘As surely as I live,’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘he will die in Babylon, in the land of the king who enthroned him, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke.
- Jeremiah 32:4 Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape from the hands of the Chaldeans, but he will surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and will speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye.
- Jeremiah 34:3 And you yourself will not escape his grasp, but will surely be captured and delivered into his hand. You will see the king of Babylon eye to eye and speak with him face to face; and you will go to Babylon.
- Lamentations 4:20 The LORD’s anointed, the breath of our life, was captured in their pits. We had said of him, “Under his shadow we will live among the nations.”