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    Jeremiah · 22 verses

    Jeremiah 34

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    Freedom arrives here with an unexpectedly sharp edge: when the people take back the slaves they had released, the LORD gives them freedom of His own—“freedom to fall by sword, by plague, and by famine!”

    A king is promised a meeting he cannot avoidvv. 1–7

    With Nebuchadnezzar and a great coalition pressing against Jerusalem and its surrounding cities, Jeremiah is sent to Zedekiah with a remarkably exact forecast. Jerusalem will be burned, Zedekiah will be captured, and he will meet the king of Babylon face to face before going to Babylon. Yet the sword is not to be his end: he will die in peace, with spices burned and mourners crying, “Alas, O master!” Jeremiah delivers the word in Jerusalem while Lachish and Azekah remain the last fortified cities in Judah—a rather short list of survivors.

    The liberty that lasted rather less than expectedvv. 8–16

    Zedekiah makes a covenant in Jerusalem: Hebrew slaves, male and female, are to be released, and the officials and people agree. They obey, release them—and then, later, change their minds and take them back. The LORD recalls the covenant made after the deliverance from Egypt, and the rule that a Hebrew brother sold into service must go free in the seventh year. The people had recently done what pleased Him, in the house that bears His Name; then they reversed themselves and made the newly freed into slaves again. It is a brisk little drama of repentance, agreement, release, reconsideration, and reversal.

    The calf, the pieces, and freedom's darker meaningvv. 17–22

    Because the people would not proclaim freedom for one another, the LORD proclaims freedom for them: freedom to fall by sword, plague, and famine. The covenant-breakers are compared with the calf cut in two, the pieces of which they passed between—a ceremony the chapter presents with perfect solemnity and no explanatory aside. The officials, priests, court officials, and all the people who passed between the pieces will be delivered to enemies who seek their lives. Zedekiah and his officials will likewise be handed over, and the Babylonian army, having withdrawn, will return to fight, capture, and burn Jerusalem. The cities of Judah are left with the bleakest possible civic description: desolation, without inhabitant.

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    Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

    1. Jer 34:1This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, all his army, all the earthly kingdoms under his control, and all the other nations were fighting against Jerusalem and all its surrounding cities.

    2. Jer 34:2The LORD, the God of Israel, told Jeremiah to go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him that this is what the LORD says: “Behold, I am about to deliver this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down.

    3. Jer 34:3And you yourself will not escape his grasp, but will surely be captured and delivered into his hand. You will see the king of Babylon eye to eye and speak with him face to face; and you will go to Babylon.

    4. Jer 34:4Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the LORD says concerning you: You will not die by the sword;

    5. Jer 34:5you will die in peace. As spices were burned for your fathers, the former kings who preceded you, so people will burn spices for you and lament, ‘Alas, O master!’ For I Myself have spoken this word, declares the LORD.”

    6. Jer 34:6In Jerusalem, then, Jeremiah the prophet relayed all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah

    7. Jer 34:7as the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and the remaining cities of Judah—against Lachish and Azekah. For these were the only fortified cities remaining in Judah.

    8. Jer 34:8After King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim liberty, the word came to Jeremiah from the LORD

    9. Jer 34:9that each man should free his Hebrew slaves, both male and female, and no one should hold his fellow Jew in bondage.

    10. Jer 34:10So all the officials and all the people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their menservants and maidservants and no longer hold them in bondage. They obeyed and released them,

    11. Jer 34:11but later they changed their minds and took back the menservants and maidservants they had freed, and they forced them to become slaves again.

    12. Jer 34:12Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

    13. Jer 34:13“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your forefathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying:

    14. Jer 34:14Every seventh year, each of you must free his Hebrew brother who has sold himself to you. He may serve you six years, but then you must let him go free. But your fathers did not listen or incline their ear.

    15. Jer 34:15Recently you repented and did what pleased Me; each of you proclaimed freedom for his neighbor. You made a covenant before Me in the house that bears My Name.

    16. Jer 34:16But now you have changed your minds and profaned My name. Each of you has taken back the menservants and maidservants whom you had set at liberty to go wherever they wanted, and you have again forced them to be your slaves.

    17. Jer 34:17Therefore this is what the LORD says: You have not obeyed Me; you have not proclaimed freedom, each man for his brother and for his neighbor. So now I proclaim freedom for you, declares the LORD—freedom to fall by sword, by plague, and by famine! I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

    18. Jer 34:18And those who have transgressed My covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before Me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two in order to pass between its pieces.

    19. Jer 34:19The officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the pieces of the calf,

    20. Jer 34:20I will deliver into the hands of their enemies who seek their lives. Their corpses will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.

    21. Jer 34:21And I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials into the hands of their enemies who seek their lives, to the army of the king of Babylon that had withdrawn from you.

    22. Jer 34:22Behold, I am going to give the command, declares 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 cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”

    01 — Also here

    Who else the chapter reaches

    Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

    Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

    02 — Read alongside

    Where this is echoed

    Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 302 passages were voted onto 20 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

    • 20Jeremiah 7:33The corpses of this people will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to scare them away.
    • 14Deuteronomy 15:12If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you must set him free.
    • 18Genesis 15:10So Abram brought all these to Him, split each of them down the middle, and laid the halves opposite each other. The birds, however, he did not cut in half.
    • 3Jeremiah 32:4Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape from the hands of the Chaldeans, but he will surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and will speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye.
    • 15Jeremiah 34:8After King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim liberty, the word came to Jeremiah from the LORD
    • 17Matthew 7:2For with the same judgment you pronounce, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
    • 2Jeremiah 21:10For I have set My face against this city to bring disaster and not good, declares the LORD. It will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, who will destroy it with fire.’
    • 3Jeremiah 21:7‘After that,’ declares the LORD, ‘I will hand over Zedekiah king of Judah, his officers, and the people in this city who survive the plague and sword and famine, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to their enemies who seek their lives. He will put them to the sword; he will not spare them or show pity or compassion.’
    • 52 Chronicles 16:14And he was buried in the tomb that he had cut out for himself in the City of David. They laid him on a bier that was full of spices and various blended perfumes; then they made a great fire in his honor.
    • 5Jeremiah 22:18Therefore this is what the LORD says concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: “They will not mourn for him: ‘Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!’ They will not mourn for him: ‘Alas, my master! Alas, his splendor!’
    • 7Joshua 10:3Therefore Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem sent word to Hoham king of Hebron, Piram king of Jarmuth, Japhia king of Lachish, and Debir king of Eglon, saying,
    • 8Leviticus 25:10So you are to consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be your Jubilee, when each of you is to return to his property and to his clan.
    • 16Leviticus 19:12You must not swear falsely by My name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.
    • 20Jeremiah 19:7And in this place I will ruin the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hands of those who seek their lives, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.
    • 22Jeremiah 9:11“And I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble, a haunt for jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”
    • 1Jeremiah 1:15For I am about to summon all the clans and kingdoms of the north,” declares the LORD. “Their kings will come and set up their thrones at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem. They will attack all her surrounding walls and all the other cities of Judah.

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