Jeremiah 34

This is the message that came to Jeremiah from the LORD at the time when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, his whole army, all the kingdoms of the earth that he ruled, and all the peoples under him were fighting against Jerusalem and against all the towns around it. The message said:

1The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth of his dominion, and all the people, fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities thereof, saying,

Note"The LORD" in capitals stands in for the personal name of Israel's God, which Hebrew writes with four consonants and which Jewish readers traditionally do not pronounce aloud. Nebuchadnezzar ruled Babylon, the dominant empire of the region, from 605 to 562 BC; the siege described here is the one that ended with Jerusalem's fall in 587/586 BC. "All the kingdoms of the earth that he ruled" means the subject peoples who were obliged to supply troops to his army, the phrase is sweeping rather than literally global.

2This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, This is what the LORD says: I am about to hand this city over to the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down.

2Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire:

NoteZedekiah was the last king of Judah. Nebuchadnezzar himself had placed him on the throne as a subject ruler after deporting the previous king; Zedekiah then rebelled, which is why the Babylonian army is at the walls.

3And you yourself will not escape from him. You will surely be captured and handed over to him. You will look the king of Babylon in the eye and speak with him face to face, and you will go to Babylon.

3And thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt surely be taken, and delivered into his hand; and thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon.

Note"Look him in the eye" and "face to face" are Hebrew expressions for a direct personal encounter. For a rebel vassal this meant being brought before his overlord in person for judgment.

4Yet listen to the word of the LORD, Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the LORD says about you: You will not die by the sword.

4Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah; Thus saith the LORD of thee, Thou shalt not die by the sword:

5You will die in peace. Spices were burned for your fathers, the kings who ruled before you, and in the same way people will burn spices for you. They will mourn for you and cry, "Oh, our master!" I myself have spoken this word, says the LORD.

5But thou shalt die in peace: and with the burnings of thy fathers, the former kings which were before thee, so shall they burn odours for thee; and they will lament thee, saying, Ah lord! for I have pronounced the word, saith the LORD.

NoteKings were honored at death by burning large quantities of spices and aromatic wood, not a cremation of the body, but a ceremonial fire as part of the funeral. "Oh, our master!" was a set cry of formal public mourning, called out by lamenters at a funeral. To "die in peace" here means to die of natural causes rather than in battle or by execution.

6So Jeremiah the prophet said all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem.

6Then Jeremiah the prophet spake all these words unto Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem,

7This was while the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against the towns of Judah that were still holding out, against Lachish and against Azekah. These were the only walled cities left in Judah.

7When the king of Babylon’s army fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish, and against Azekah: for these defenced cities remained of the cities of Judah.

NoteLachish and Azekah were fortified towns guarding the approaches to Jerusalem from the southwest. Letters written on pottery fragments, found in the ruins of Lachish, appear to come from this very campaign; one mentions watching for the fire signals of Lachish because the signals of Azekah can no longer be seen.

8This is the message that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had made an agreement with all the people in Jerusalem to announce freedom for their slaves.

8This 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;

Note"Announce freedom" translates a specific Hebrew legal term for the release of people from debt-slavery and of property from debt, the same word used for the jubilee release. A king proclaiming it was making a formal public act of law, not simply giving advice.

9The agreement was that every man should set free his Hebrew slaves, both the men and the women, and that no one should keep a fellow Jew in slavery.

9That 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.

NoteSlavery here is mainly debt-slavery: an Israelite who could not pay his debts sold himself or his children into service to work them off. Israelite law treated a fellow Israelite in this position differently from a foreign slave, which is why the agreement is limited to Hebrew slaves.

10All the officials and all the people who entered into this agreement accepted that each man would set free his male and female slaves and would no longer keep them in slavery. They obeyed and let them go.

10Now 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.

11But afterward they changed their minds. They took back the male and female slaves they had set free, and forced them into slavery again.

11But 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.

12So this message from the LORD came to Jeremiah:

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

13This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I made an agreement with your ancestors on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the place where they were slaves. I told them:

13Thus 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,

Note"The place where they were slaves" is literally "the house of slaves," a fixed phrase for Egypt used in Israel's law and worship. The point is that a people freed from slavery are bound by law not to hold each other permanently in it.

14At the end of every seven years, each of you must set free any fellow Hebrew who sold himself to you. He may serve you six years, and then you must let him go free. But your ancestors did not listen to me and paid no attention.

14At 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.

NoteThe law referred to is in Exodus 21:2 and Deuteronomy 15:12: a Hebrew debt-slave served six years and went free in the seventh. "At the end of every seven years" reflects the Hebrew wording, which counts by the recurring seventh-year cycle; the following clause gives the actual term of service.

15Recently you did turn around and do what is right in my sight. Each of you announced freedom for his neighbor, and you made this agreement in my presence, in the house that is called by my name.

15And ye were now 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:

Note"The house that is called by my name" is the temple in Jerusalem. Swearing an agreement there made it a binding oath, with God as witness.

16But then you turned back and treated my name as worthless. Each of you took back the male and female slaves you had set free to go wherever they wished, and you forced them to be your slaves again.

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

NoteTo "treat my name as worthless" translates a verb meaning to profane or make common. Because the agreement had been sworn in God's name at the temple, breaking it was treated as an insult to the name itself.

17So this is what the LORD says: You have not obeyed me. You did not announce freedom, each man for his brother and his neighbor. So now I announce a freedom for you, says the LORD: freedom to die by the sword, by disease, and by hunger. I will make you a horror to every kingdom on earth.

17Therefore 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.

NoteThis is a bitter play on words. The same legal term for the "freedom" they refused to give their slaves is now announced over them: they are released, into the reach of war, plague and famine. "Sword, plague and famine" is a standard trio in Jeremiah for the deaths that follow a siege.

18I will deal with the men who broke my covenant, who did not keep the terms of the agreement they made in my presence. They cut a calf in two and walked between the pieces to seal it.

18And 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,

NoteThis describes how agreements were sealed. An animal was cut in half, the halves laid apart, and the parties walked between them, in effect calling down on themselves the fate of the animal if they broke their word. The same ritual appears in Genesis 15. The Hebrew idiom for making a covenant is literally "to cut a covenant."

19This includes the officials of Judah and the officials of Jerusalem, the court officers, the priests, and all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the calf.

19The 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;

Note"Court officers" translates a word that can mean a castrated palace official or, more broadly, a high-ranking royal servant; the sense here is officials of the king's household. "The people of the land" is a set term for the free, property-owning citizens of Judah, the class with legal standing, and the class that would have owned slaves.

20I will hand them over to their enemies, to those who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth.

20I 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.

NoteLeaving a corpse unburied for scavengers was the ultimate disgrace in this culture, and a stock image in prophetic warnings of defeat.

21I will also hand over Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials to their enemies, to those who want to kill them, and to the army of the king of Babylon, which has pulled back from you.

21And 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.

NoteThe Babylonian army had temporarily lifted the siege to face an Egyptian force marching to Judah's aid (see Jeremiah 37:5). That reprieve is almost certainly why the slave-owners took their slaves back: the emergency seemed over.

22I am going to give the order, says the LORD, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, capture it, and burn it down. And I will make the towns of Judah an empty ruin, with no one living in them.

22Behold, 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.

Note"I will give the order" pictures the Babylonian army as acting under God's command; the prophecy is that the withdrawal will prove temporary and the siege will resume.