WHILE NEBUCHADNEZZAR KING of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms and peoples in the empire he ruled were fighting against Jerusalem and all its surrounding towns, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Go 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. 3You will not escape from his grasp but will surely be captured and handed over to him. You will see the king of Babylon with your own eyes, and he will speak with you face to face. And you will go to Babylon.
4“‘Yet hear the promise of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the LORD says concerning you: You will not die by the sword; 5you will die peacefully. As people made a funeral fire in honor of your fathers, the former kings who preceded you, so they will make a fire in your honor and lament, “Alas, O master!” I myself make this promise, declares the LORD.’”
6Then Jeremiah the prophet told all this to Zedekiah king of Judah, in Jerusalem, 7while the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah that were still holding out—Lachish and Azekah. These were the only fortified cities left in Judah.
8The word came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves. 9Everyone was to free his Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Jew in bondage. 10So all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their male and female slaves and no longer hold them in bondage. They agreed, and set them free. 11But afterward they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again.
12Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 13“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your forefathers when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I said, 14‘Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrew who has sold himself to you. After he has served you six years, you must let him go free.’ Your fathers, however, did not listen to me or pay attention to me. 15Recently you repented and did what is right in my sight: Each of you proclaimed freedom to his countrymen. You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name. 16But now you have turned around and profaned my name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again.
17“Therefore, this is what the LORD says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom for your fellow countrymen. So I now proclaim ‘freedom’ for you, declares the LORD—‘freedom’ to fall by the sword, plague and famine. I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth. 18The men who have violated 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 and then walked between its pieces. 19The leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests and all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the calf, 20I will hand over to their enemies who seek their lives. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.
21“I will hand Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials over to their enemies who seek their lives, to the army of the king of Babylon, which has withdrawn from you. 22I am going to give the order, declares the LORD, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, take it and burn it down. And I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there.”
Original Meaning
CHAPTER 34 IS PART of a series of narratives about the siege and fall of Jerusalem. It is linked with chapters 32–33 by the common setting of the Babylonian siege during Zedekiah’s reign, although chapters 32–33 are also typically grouped with chapters 30–31 as part of the theme of restoration. A date sometime in 588 B.C. or early 587 fits the historical context of the events narrated in chapter 34. Chapter 35 is set in the time of King Jehoiakim, several years earlier, so its contents are related to chapter 34 by the theme of Judah’s failures, not that of chronology.
The narrative in chapter 34 has two primary parts. Verses 1–5 are a word from the Lord to Jerusalem and Zedekiah, and verses 8–22 report an emancipation ceremony (lit., a covenant) for Judean slaves and a subsequent reneging on the proclamation by slave owners. The failure of the people to honor their covenant oath becomes the occasion for the Lord again to announce his judgment on Judah, Jerusalem, and Zedekiah.
34:1–5. This passage should be read in the context of 38:17–18; 39:7; 52:8–11; and 2 Kings 25:1–7. The fate of Zedekiah and of the city and nation are bound together. The statements about the future should be understood as announcements contingent on the reactions of king and people to the Babylonian siege. Verses 2–3 voice a familiar word of judgment on the city and its king. Their present course of disaster will lead (as it were) inevitably to a tragic conclusion. Verses 4–5, likewise, should be understood as contingent on some response of Zedekiah, even at this late date. Although not formulated in the classical form of a call to repentance, these prophecies indicate the possible mitigation of the king’s threatening circumstances.
Later on, Zedekiah was captured while fleeing the besieged city. His last days were spent in darkness because the Babylonians blinded him—a cruel act that came after the execution of members of his family (39:5–7). One should note the information provided in 34:21. It is a commentary (an update) on the word to Zedekiah in 34:4–5, perhaps anticipating the king’s continuing recalcitrance and his sorry fate. Zedekiah’s actions condemned him to the same fate as the rebellious city.
34:6–7. These verses seem to be an incidental comment regarding the timing of Jeremiah’s communication to Zedekiah. As a result of archaeological work, however, they have become an interesting commentary on the formation of the book. According to verses 6–7, the two cities of Azekah and Lachish were still holding out against the Babylonian forces when Jeremiah made his prophecies to Zedekiah. The site of ancient Lachish is at modern Tell ed Duweir in the Shephelah hills southwest of Jerusalem. During the 1930s an expedition sponsored by the British School of Archaeology excavated at the site. Near the gate and near the interior fortress the excavation team found several ostraca (letters written on pottery shards) from stratum II, dating from the time of Jeremiah. One of the letters states that the signals from Azekah, located a few kilometers to the north of Lachish, could no longer be seen.1
34:8–22. King Zedekiah had initiated a covenant with his subjects regarding their Judean slaves, that they were to be set free. The reason is not stated, but most likely the dire circumstances of the Babylonian siege lay behind the ceremony. Some scholars have speculated that with the scarcity of food, the manumission of the slaves meant that the owners were no longer obligated to feed them. It is also possible that freed slaves were more likely to defend their freedom in the struggle with Babylon. In any case, after the release of the slaves circumstances apparently improved enough so that the solemn oath of the covenant was broken and the slaves were taken back by their owners. Apparently there was a temporary lifting of the siege (cf. 37:7–8). This is the best interpretation of the comment in 34:21–22 that the Lord will “bring … back” the Babylonian army that “has withdrawn.”
No context or background is given for the first acquisitions of the slaves, but their enslavement is primarily debt related. Debts and warfare were the two most common reasons for someone to become a slave in antiquity. In a caustic response to the events, God (through Jeremiah) alludes to the debt-slavery laws of Deuteronomy 152 and perhaps also to the custom of a royal proclamation of “freedom” (deror) from indebtedness.3 In the indictment for breaking their word and reenslaving the slaves, the people are also accused of breaking the covenant God made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. Verse 14 includes the just treatment of slaves (and thus the allusion to Deut. 15) as part of the covenant obligations assumed by Israel. The verse also states categorically that Israel has not met that obligation adequately.
Scholars debate whether the covenant release of Jeremiah 34:8–22 was part of the sabbatical (i.e., seven-year) cycle of debt forgiveness mandated by Deuteronomy 15 or part of a special freedom proclamation initiated by King Zedekiah (on analogy with Assyrian and Babylonian rulers) as a response to the crisis of the siege.4 One cannot be dogmatic in these matters, but perhaps the role of Zedekiah in making the covenant with the people tips the balance toward a special royal proclamation rather than the regular sabbatical release. In either case, the covenant ceremony is carried out at the temple (v. 15). This is a solemn context in which to make an oath or ratify a promise, since it brings the presence of the Lord to the process.
The allusion to Deuteronomy 15 in Jeremiah 34:14–15 is also important to understanding God’s anger over the injustice done to the slaves, since the pentateuchal legislation links the obligation of justice toward slaves with the content of the covenant stipulations given to their ancestors. Jeremiah underscores this same dynamic. The ancestors of the Judeans were slaves in Egypt, and God brought them out of the house of slavery. God has not gone back on his good word and work, so neither should the slave owners in Judah.
The indictment of the people contains a play on the word deror (34:8, 15, 17). If the people can “proclaim freedom” for the slaves, only to take them back when it is convenient, then God will “proclaim freedom” for Judah and Jerusalem. Readers will detect the sarcasm in this proclamation easily enough. God’s freedom proclamation to Judah and Jerusalem is “freedom” to fall to Babylon. In this announcement of judgment, the punishment to come fits the crime. There is a link between crime and punishment.
Verses 18–19 refer to the owners and officials who pass between the parts of the calf; this probably indicates a self-imprecation and promissory oath as part of the solemn covenant ceremony. The best parallel to the report comes in Genesis 15:7–21, where Abram prepares for a sacrificial ceremony by slaying the proper animals and dividing their carcasses.5 In such ceremonies, those who walked between the parts of the slain animals enacted symbolically their passing through death and dismemberment as a pledge to keep their word. “Passing through the pieces” thus became a symbolic act to bind the word of promise as an imprecatory oath. Since the Judeans passed between the parts of the calf when making an oath to free the slaves but subsequently did not keep their word, they themselves will be like the sacrificial animals.
Bridging Contexts
CRISIS MORALITY. Jeremiah 34, with all its specificity regarding time and circumstances, raises the issue of crisis conversions or what some people call “deathbed confessions.” Desperate circumstances can lead to desperate measures. As noted, the emancipation of the slaves during Zedekiah’s reign was apparently prompted by the harsh circumstances of the Babylonian siege. Apparently the obligations the owners had to their slaves were not carried out fairly in the past (34:13–15), so why enact a covenant ceremony now? It is hard to escape the conclusion that the ceremony was one of desperation, carried out because of the grim circumstances of the city. Was this inherently wrong? Nothing in the text indicates that the ceremony itself was wrong; if anything, the text implies that the emancipation was long overdue (cf. 34:15). The point seems to be that there really was no conversion, only desperation.
The covenant God granted Israel at Mount Sinai obligated the people to certain norms of behavior toward God and one another. Obedience, however, was not only an act but also a matter of the heart (and soul). Neither an individual nor a group honors God solely with outward obedience, although obedience is a key indicator of a person or group’s true allegiance. For Judah in Zedekiah’s day, it was not a case of learning something new about God’s covenant stipulations but of carrying them out as a means to honor God. The people made a solemn promise before God to treat their slaves fairly and to grant them freedom. This is a dynamic that crosses time and culture regardless of the particular issue under consideration. God is served and honored when his claim on his people is demonstrated through their obedience to his revealed will.
Slavery. Slavery was an accepted institution in ancient Israel. Most slaves in the ancient Near East became such through indebtedness or capture in war (not kidnapping, as was the case for Africans brought to the United States).6 The stipulations about slavery in the Old Testament are mostly about ways to ameliorate the conditions of servitude and/or ways to treat slaves (servants)7 humanely. It should be noted that God is on the side of the slaves, not on the side of the crass owners. Of course, the indebtedness incurred by slaves had to be dealt with fairly, but the indebted persons themselves were expected to receive just treatment.
Contemporary Significance
PROMISE KEEPERS, THEN and now. On October 4, 1997, close to a million men gathered in Washington, D.C., to proclaim themselves Promise Keepers for the Lord. Bill McCartney, formerly a college football coach at the University of Colorado, began a ministry seven years previously for men, which grew in a few years to become a large and influential ministry. The premise of the evangelical organization known as The Promise Keepers is that men should ground their Christian faith in their responsibilities to love their wives and children. McCartney has also made a strong push to overcome the effects of racism in Christian organizations by reaching out to men of different color and ethnic origins. Moreover, in this movement there is a strong emphasis on repentance from past failures to live up to God’s standards and to trust in Jesus Christ to change a man’s life.
It is an amazing commentary on modern life when public interest groups question both the motives and the values of the Promise Keepers. Particularly strident have been the comments from the National Organization of Women. Its president stated on national television that the goals of Promise Keepers were detrimental to the freedom and health of women and that the movement was a servant to “right-wing causes.” How odd! The stated purpose of Promise Keepers is to call men to be obedient to the claims of the gospel and to take godly responsibility for their lives and those of their families. These principles are not new; they are basic evangelical tenets and classical Christian teaching.
In a perceptive comment published in national newspapers, Martin Marty (professor of church history at the University of Chicago) said that perhaps the Promise Keepers were simply who they said they were: men seeking to be faithful to the gospel by keeping promises made before God to be responsible in their spheres of influence (family, work, society). Such men are not antiwomen, right-wing zealots, or puppets for sinister causes; after all, the core tenets of the movement are conservative in nature. Marty’s point is an important one in a time when all commitments and allegiances seem only temporary or to have strings attached. One need not agree with all the theological underpinnings of the Promise Keepers movement to see the value of keeping commitments made before God.
Such debate illustrates the cost of discipleship for Christians as well as the nature of social commitments in a highly individualistic culture. Obedience to God will look strange in a world dedicated to individual freedom and moral relativism. In such a world people will look for their advantage and see a plot wherever people are living in a community of faith and acting out of moral conviction.
But a community of faithful obedience is what God has called his people to be. It is always easier to undergo a public ritual of moral and spiritual obligation (like a covenant before God to release slaves in Jeremiah’s day or the signing of a statement of Christian outrage over the abuse of children) than it is to keep a promise made before God and to carry through one’s obligation. But God has called his people to be people of their (and his) word. Repentance and embracing the gospel are not negative acts but positive, joyful responses to a higher calling. God is the ultimate Promise Keeper. God’s people are called to honor him by keeping their commitments made in his name.
One wonders what later historians will say of the tumultuous social changes that have swept through much of the Western world (and affected other parts of the globe as well) in the last half of the twentieth century. Surely the accelerated pace of change itself will be seen as one of the remarkable characteristics of the period. Perhaps future generations will be making the necessary adaptations to cope with the pace of societal changes. Change seems to dictate for many people that they keep their options open, that they try to remain flexible, and that they make no commitments unless an easy point of extrication is identified. Perhaps the Christians of the future will have the courage of conviction to point out that promises, divine and human, are the rock on which all relationships stand.