God warns King Zedekiah
34
📚The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth in his dominion, and all the people, fought against Jerusalem, and against all its cities, saying, 2 📚“Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel. Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him the LORD says this: See, I will give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire, 3 📚and you will not escape from his hands, but will certainly be captured and delivered into his hands. And your eyes will see the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he will speak with you mouth to mouth, and you will go to Babylon. 4 “Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah. The LORD says this about you: You will not die by the sword, 5 📚but you will die peacefully; and as in the burning ceremonies for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so they will burn spices for you, and will lament for you, saying, ‘Alas, master!’ for I have proclaimed the word, says the LORD”.
34:1-5 This is similar to the warning in Jer 21:3-10. Here Zedekiah is promised that he will not die in the capture of Jerusalem but will end his days quietly in Babylon and not without some honor from the people. So God shows mercy even to the wicked.⚜
6 📚Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem, 7 📚when 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 fortified cities remained of the cities of Judah).
Slaves and God’s message
8 📚A word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them, 9 📚so that every man should let his male or female servant who was a Hebrew man or woman, go free, that no one should keep any of them, that is, his brother Jew, in bondage. 10 📚Now when all the princes and all the people who had entered into the covenant, heard that every one should let his male or female servant go free, that no one should keep them in bondage any longer, they obeyed and let them go.
11 📚But afterwards they turned right around and caused the servants and the maid servants, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into bondage as servants and as maidservants.
34:11 Here is another indication of the sad and evil condition of the people in Jerusalem. They very quickly broke their solemn promise to the king, and disobeyed the commands of God’s word. The Babylonians temporarily departed from the siege of Jerusalem, and the people thought they were safe again to do as they pleased (Jer 34:21).⚜
12 Therefore the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 13 📚“Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondmen, saying, 14 📚At the end of each seven years every one of you must release his Hebrew brother who has been sold to you; and when he has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you. But your fathers did not listen or turn their ear to me. 15 📚And recently you changed and did right in my sight, each one proclaiming liberty to his neighbour; and you made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name. 16 📚But you turned right around and profaned my name, each one causing his servant or his maid servant, whom he had set at liberty at their wish, to return, and brought them into bondage, to be servants and maidservants for you.
34:12-16 Could the people imagine that God did not observe their behavior?⚜
17 📚“Therefore thus says the LORD: You have not listened to me. Each man has not proclaimed liberty to his brother and to his neighbour. See, I am proclaiming a ‘liberty’ for you, says the LORD, to the sword, to the plague, and to the famine, and I will cause you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.
34:17 God would show them what He thought of their broken promise and disobedience to His commands. He would proclaim a “liberty” for them – a release from life itself. This is in accordance with the principle laid down in various places in the Word of God – men shall reap what they sow (Deut 19:21; Ps 18:25-26; Prov 22:8; Gal 6:7).⚜
18 📚And I will give the men who have broken my covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts, 19 📚the princes of Judah and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, who passed between the parts of the calf, 20 📚I will give them into the hands of their enemies and into the hands of those who seek their life; and their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky, and for the beasts of the earth.
34:18-20 In ancient times when making a solemn covenant sometimes an animal was killed and divided into two parts, and those making the covenant walked between the parts. Compare Gen 15:9-19.⚜
21 📚“And I will give Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes into the hands of their enemies and into the hands of those who seek their life and into the hands of the army of the king of Babylon, which has gone away from you. 22 📚See, I will give a command, says the LORD, and cause them to return to this city; and they will fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire. And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without an inhabitant”.
34:22 The armies of Babylon were under the control of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel. Indeed, all armies, all human beings are under His control (Ps 135:6; Dan 4:34-35).⚜