(2, 3) Go and speak to Zedekiah . . .--See Notes on Jeremiah 32:3-4.

Verses 2, 3. - (Getup. these verses with Jeremiah 32:3-5.)

34:1-7 Zedekiah is told that the city shall be taken, and that he shall die a captive, but he shall die a natural death. It is better to live and die penitent in a prison, than to live and die impenitent in a palace.Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel,.... Who, though the covenant God of Israel, yet provoked by their sins, sends the following message to their king:

go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him: alone; and tell it to no other but him, at least at present; the message being more peculiar to him, and must, had it been told to the people, been very disheartening to them:

behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon,

and he shall burn it with fire; see Jeremiah 32:3; which was exactly accomplished, Jeremiah 52:13.