Jeremiah 34King James Version
King Zedekiah frees all the Hebrew slaves in a moment of crisis when the Babylonians are at the gates. When the siege is temporarily lifted, the masters take their slaves back. God's fury at this breach of covenant is intense. You have not proclaimed liberty to your brothers, so I proclaim liberty to you to the sword and to famine.
God tells Zedekiah he will die peacefully, not violently. Then a sharp episode: during the siege, the people of Jerusalem freed their Hebrew slaves as the covenant required. When the siege temporarily lifted, they immediately re-enslaved them. God's response is withering: you freed them before me and took them back. The freedom you refused is now a death warrant.
Covenant obedience under pressure followed by immediate reversal when the pressure lifts is worse than not obeying at all. It is contempt wearing the costume of compliance.
17: "Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every one to his neighbour: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the LORD, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine." The liberty they refused to grant is now turned on them.
The siege of 588 to 586 BC. A Babylonian army is camped around Jerusalem. The city is running low on food. The people free their slaves, perhaps as an act of collective penitence, perhaps to arm them. Then Pharaoh Hophra marches north from Egypt and the Babylonians temporarily withdraw. The slaveholders go immediately to take their people back. Babylon returns shortly after.
Zedekiah, who receives a private prophecy about his death. The slaveholders of Jerusalem, who freed and then re-enslaved their Hebrew servants. God, who uses the language of the covenant ceremony against those who violated it.
The slave release and recapture episode is one of the most concrete examples of covenant hypocrisy in the narrative. The Hebrew slave release law goes back to the Sinai covenant. That these people knew the law, enacted it in crisis, then reversed it when the immediate threat eased, became a defining example of covenant faithlessness.
For when you have done the right thing because you were scared and then undone it when the fear passed. The chapter does not miss the pattern. It names it with precision and attaches consequences.
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.
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.
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.