Jeremiah 34
Jeremiah 34 falls in the last, desperate days of Jerusalem. Babylon's army has surrounded the city - Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army… fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities thereof (v. 1) - and only a couple of fortified towns, Lachish and Azekah, are still holding out (v. 7). Into that hour the LORD sends Jeremiah to King Zedekiah with a word that is mostly judgment and yet carries one thread of mercy. The city will be burned and the king taken to Babylon, where he will see Nebuchadnezzar mouth to mouth (v. 3); and yet Zedekiah is told, against all he might fear, Thou shalt not die by the sword: but thou shalt die in peace (vv. 4-5). Even in the wreck of his reign, God leaves him a strange kindness.3
The chapter's heart, though, is a covenant the people made and broke. Pressed by the siege, Zedekiah led the city in a solemn pledge to proclaim liberty to their Hebrew slaves - to release them, exactly as the law of the seventh year had always required (vv. 8-10; Deut. 15:12). For a moment they did right: the slaves went free. But when the pressure lifted, afterward they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and forced them back into bondage (v. 11). The repentance had lasted only as long as the danger. They had done the right thing for the wrong reason, and the moment fear loosened its grip, the old injustice returned.
God's answer is a judgment cut to fit the crime. Because they would not proclaim liberty to one another, He says, behold, I proclaim a liberty for you… to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine (v. 17). The freedom they withheld becomes the only freedom they are granted - freedom to be destroyed and scattered. And there is a chilling detail in how their covenant had been sealed: they had cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof (vv. 18-19), invoking on themselves the fate of that slaughtered animal should they break their word. They broke it - and now the self-curse falls. Yet the very word they refused, liberty, is the word a greater Voice would one day take up as the heart of His own mission - to set the captives free with a freedom no one can take back.2
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Jeremiah 34:1-7Thou Shalt Not Die by the Sword
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, 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: 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. 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: 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. 6Then Jeremiah the prophet spake all these words unto Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem, 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.
The chapter opens at the breaking point. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army… fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities thereof (v. 1) - the full weight of the empire is thrown against a city in its last days. And the LORD sends Jeremiah straight to the king with a word that spares him nothing of the truth: Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire (v. 2). Zedekiah himself will not slip away: thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt surely be taken (v. 3). The detail that follows is grimly personal - thine eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth. The king who would not listen to God's word through His prophet will be made to stand face to face with the conqueror and hear his sentence directly. There is no negotiating the judgment away; the time for that has passed. Jeremiah's task here is the hardest a messenger can have - to tell a frightened ruler, plainly and without flattery, exactly what is coming.
And yet, threaded through the doom, there is a single bright thread of mercy: Yet hear the word of the LORD… Thou shalt not die by the sword: but thou shalt die in peace (vv. 4-5). It is a striking thing to find here. Zedekiah is a weak and faithless king; he has jailed the prophet and refused the word of God again and again. He has earned no kindness. But the LORD grants him one anyway: he will not be cut down in the slaughter of the city's fall, but will live out his days and die quietly, mourned with the customary honors - they will lament thee, saying, Ah lord! The promise is not that he escapes consequence; Babylon, Jeremiah elsewhere makes clear, will put out his eyes and carry him away in chains. It is that within the judgment, God still measures out a personal mercy. This is the texture of the LORD's dealings all through the prophets: even where He must let the sentence fall, He does not deal with people more harshly than He must, and He remembers mercy in the middle of wrath. The same God who hands the city to the flames leaves its king a peace at the end.
Jeremiah 34:8-17I Proclaim a Liberty for You
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; 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. 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 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. 12Therefore the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 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, 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. 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: 16But 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. 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.
Now the chapter turns to its heart. Under the terror of the siege, Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people… to proclaim liberty unto them (v. 8) - a solemn, public release of every Hebrew slave, that every man should let his manservant, and every man his maidservant… go free (v. 9). This was not a new idea; it was the law they had been ignoring for generations. From the beginning the LORD had commanded that a Hebrew sold into service be set free in the seventh year, never held in permanent bondage by a brother (v. 14; Deut. 15:12). For once, they obeyed: when all the princes, and all the people… heard… then they obeyed, and let them go (v. 10). It is a real and striking act of repentance - a whole city, in its last extremity, finally doing the justice it had long withheld. One can almost feel the relief of those who had been slaves walking free into the streets. For a single moment, the city does right by its own. The covenant is cut, the oath is sworn in the temple itself, and the freed go out.
And then it all comes undone. But afterward they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return (v. 11). The little word afterward carries the whole tragedy. Most likely the siege had eased - an Egyptian army was on the move, and Babylon pulled back for a time - and the moment the pressure lifted, so did the obedience. The freed were hunted down and dragged back into bondage. Here is the exposed nerve of the whole episode: their repentance had been real only as long as the danger was. It was fear, not faith, that opened the slaves' chains, and when fear receded, the chains went back on. This is one of the most searching warnings in the prophets about the human heart. Reform that lasts only while the threat lasts is not repentance at all; it is self-interest wearing repentance's clothes. The people had done the right thing for the wrong reason, and the wrong reason could not hold it. When the crisis passed, the true state of their hearts came back into view - and it looked exactly as it had before.
God's response begins by recalling His own ancient covenant: 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 (v. 13). The reminder is pointed. They had once been slaves themselves; the LORD had set them free, and the law of release was meant to keep the memory of that freedom alive in how they treated one another. To re-enslave a freed brother was to spit on the very deliverance that made them a people. So when they reversed the release, the charge is severe: ye turned and polluted my name (v. 16). They had sworn the covenant in the house which is called by my name (v. 15) - in the temple, under God's own name - and then broke it, dragging that holy name through their treachery. An oath sworn before God and then trampled does not merely wrong the slaves; it profanes God Himself. What had looked, for a moment, like a city turning back to its Lord is revealed as a city using His name and then discarding it the instant it cost them something.
Then comes the sentence, and it is built with terrible precision out of their own crime: Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty… behold, I proclaim a liberty for you… to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine (v. 17). The judgment is a mirror held up to the sin. They refused to proclaim liberty to their brothers - so God will proclaim a liberty over them, but a dreadful one. They are set free - free from His protection, released to the three great horrors of a fallen city: the sword that kills, the disease that follows a siege, the famine that empties the storehouses. Having denied freedom to others, they are given the only freedom they have earned: the freedom to be destroyed and scattered, removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. It is one of the sharpest ironies in all the prophets. The word they would not say in mercy, God says in judgment. This is how God's justice often works in Scripture - the sin is allowed to become its own sentence; what a people sow, they reap. Refuse to release others, and you will not be released; close your hand, and find heaven's hand closed over you.
Jeremiah 34:18-22When They Cut the Calf in Twain
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, 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; 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. 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. 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.
Now the judgment names the exact form their treachery had taken. They were 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 (v. 18). This was the ancient way of sealing the most solemn oath. A young animal was cut in two, the halves laid apart, and those swearing the covenant walked the path between the pieces - a dramatic, wordless vow that meant, in effect, may I be made like this slaughtered animal if I break my word. The people had done exactly this. Every rank had passed between the halves of the calf - the princes… the eunuchs… the priests, and all the people of the land (v. 19) - binding themselves under the most fearful sanction they knew. And then they broke it. So God says, with awful symmetry, that the self-curse they invoked will now fall: I will even give them into the hand of their enemies… and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven (v. 20). Having sworn to become like the slain calf if they failed, and having failed, they will become exactly that - bodies left unburied on the open ground.
The sentence reaches all the way to the throne and then to the whole land. Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes will I give into the hand of their enemies… and into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, which are gone up from you (v. 21). That last phrase - which are gone up from you - almost certainly refers to the brief reprieve when Babylon lifted the siege to deal with Egypt, the very lull that had tempted the people to re-enslave the freed. So God answers the false hope directly: the army that went up, that seemed to be leaving, He will command… and cause them to return to this city; and they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire (v. 22). The reprieve was no rescue; it was only a pause, and the people had used it to betray their oath. The chapter ends in stark finality - I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without an inhabitant. The covenant broken in the temple is answered by the temple-city emptied and burned. What had begun with a hopeful proclamation of liberty ends with the land swept bare, the price of a promise made before God and then thrown away.
Further study
- The Hebrew text of Jeremiah 34 with Rashi, Radak, and other classical commentators side by side - useful for deror (vv. 8, 15, 17, “liberty,” the same word as the Jubilee release of Lev. 25:10), for the idiom karat berit (vv. 8, 13, 18, literally to “cut a covenant”), and for the laws of release standing behind the slave-freeing in verses 9-14.
- Jeremiah 34 ↔ Leviticus 25 · Genesis 15 · Isaiah 61 · Luke 4Intertextual BibleTraces the threads tying Jeremiah 34 to the rest of Scripture - the proclaimed liberty (v. 17) read beside the Jubilee of Leviticus 25:10 and the liberty Christ announces in Luke 4:18 (Isa. 61:1), and the covenant sealed by passing between the pieces (vv. 18-19) read alongside God's own covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15:9-18.
- Jeremiah 34 - Translators' NotesNET BibleThe NET Bible's detailed footnotes on Jeremiah 34 - the siege setting and the fortified towns of Lachish and Azekah (vv. 1-7), the word to Zedekiah that he would die in peace (vv. 4-5), the law of release behind the slave covenant (vv. 8-14), and the ancient covenant-cutting ceremony described in verses 18-19.
Where this echoes in Scripture
Thou Shalt Not Die by the Sword
- Jeremiah 52:11Then he put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in chains, and carried him to Babylon.How the word of verses 3-5 came to pass - Zedekiah taken to Babylon, yet not slain by the sword.
- 2 Kings 25:1Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it.The siege that frames verse 1 - the encircling of the city recorded as history.
- Lamentations 3:32But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.The mercy folded into judgment in verses 4-5 - God remembering compassion even as the sentence falls.
- Ezekiel 12:13I will bring him to Babylon... yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there.A parallel word on Zedekiah’s fate - carried to Babylon, the eyes that beheld the king blinded before the end.
- Jeremiah 38:17If thou wilt assuredly go forth unto the king of Babylon’s princes, then thy soul shall live.The mercy still held out to Zedekiah - a peace he could have had had he heeded the word of verses 4-5.
I Proclaim a Liberty for You
- Leviticus 25:10And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.The Jubilee release behind the word <em>liberty</em> in verses 8 and 17 - the great freedom Judah covenanted to give.
- Deuteronomy 15:12thou shalt let him go free from thee... in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free.The law of release recalled in verse 14 - the command Judah had long ignored and briefly kept.
- Luke 4:18he hath sent me... to preach deliverance to the captives... to set at liberty them that are bruised.The liberty Judah refused (v. 17) announced as the mission of the Anointed One - freedom proclaimed in person.
- Matthew 18:33Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?The principle behind the judgment of verse 17 - those forgiven who refuse to forgive are given over.
- James 2:13For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy.The mirror-justice of verse 17 stated plainly - the mercy withheld becomes the judgment received.
When They Cut the Calf in Twain
- Genesis 15:17-18a burning lamp that passed between those pieces. In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram.The same ceremony as verses 18-19 - but there God Himself passes between the pieces, binding Himself to keep the promise.
- Hebrews 13:20that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant.The covenant sealed in blood that the broken covenant of verses 18-20 throws into relief - one God keeps Himself.
- Matthew 26:28For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.The pledge between the pieces (vv. 18-19) made good - the covenant sealed at last in Christ’s own blood.
- Ecclesiastes 5:4When thou vowest a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he hath no pleasure in fools.The weight of the broken oath in verses 18-20 - a vow before God is not a thing to be taken back.
- Jeremiah 37:8And the Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against this city, and take it, and burn it with fire.The return of the army promised in verse 22 - the reprieve a pause, not a rescue.