“Yet hear
The word of Yahweh!
O King Zedekiah
Of Judah!
Thus says Yahweh
Concerning you.
‘You shall not die
By the sword.
You shall die in peace.
As spices were burned
For your ancestors,
The earlier kings
Who preceded you,
So they will
Burn spices for you.
They will
Lament for you,
Saying.
‘Alas!
Lord!’
I have spoken the word.’
Says Yahweh.”
Yahweh has Jeremiah tell King Zedekiah that he will not die by the sword or on the battlefield. Instead the king would die in peace. They would have a nice funeral for him. They would burn spices for him, as they had done to the honor the former kings, his ancestors. They had not done this for his brother King Jehoiakim or King Eliakim (609-598 BCE). However, they would lament the death of King Zedekiah as if he were a good king. Thus he would have a glorious happy death.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 