Jeremiah 34:8-22 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

The Cancelled Liberation of Slaves. In the interval during which the besiegers had withdrawn (Jeremiah 34:21; cf. Jeremiah 21:2; Jeremiah 37:5), Jeremiah is commissioned to condemn the breach of the promises made by king and people during the earlier straits. They had agreed to emancipate all Hebrew slaves, and had solemnly covenanted to this effect. They broke this agreement (when the Babylonian peril seemed to be removed), and in so doing they profaned (Jeremiah 34:16) Yahweh's name, by disregard of His original covenant (Jeremiah 34:18), when the law of emancipation after six years of service was first given (Jeremiah 34:13). So Yahweh proclaims a liberation of His people from Himself to the cruel tyranny of war (Jeremiah 34:17); He will cause the besiegers who have temporarily retired from them (gone up, Jeremiah 34:21) to return, as they have caused their emancipated slaves to return.

Jeremiah 34:14. The original covenant of Yahweh included the law of Deuteronomy 15:12 ff., which is here cited; the connexion with this law is not, however, very precise, since the present temporary emancipation is represented as general, apart from the period of six years of service. At the end of seven years (we should say, in the seventh year, or at the end of six years.

Jeremiah 34:18. This division of the victim is usually supposed to symbolise the fate invoked on those who break the covenant but Robertson Smith (RS 2, p. 481) suggested that the parties stood between the pieces, as a symbol that they were taken within the mystical life of the victim (Genesis 15:17 *).

Related Commentaries of Jeremiah 34:8

Jeremiah 34:8-22

8 This is the word that came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them;

9 That every man should let his manservant, and every man his maidservant, being an Hebrew or an Hebrewess, go free; that none should serve himself of them, to wit, of a Jew his brother.

10 Now when all the princes, and all the people, which had entered into the covenant, heard that every one should let his manservant, and every one his maidservant, go free, that none should serve themselves of them any more, then they obeyed, and let them go.

11 But afterward they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.

12 Therefore the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

13 Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondmen, saying,

14 At the end of seven years let ye go every man his brother an Hebrew, which hath been sold unto thee; and when he hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear.

15 And ye were nowa turned, and had done right in my sight, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbour; and ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name:

16 But ye turned and polluted my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom ye had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and for handmaids.

17 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbour: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the LORD, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.

18 And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof,

19 The princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf;

20 I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth.

21 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.

22 Behold, I will command, saith the LORD, and cause them to return to this city; and they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire: and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without an inhabitant.