New International Reader s Version - NIrV - 1996
Jeremiah 34
1
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylonia, and all of his armies were fighting against Jerusalem. They were also fighting against all of the towns that were around it. All of the kingdoms and nations Nebuchadnezzar ruled over were helping him. At that time a message came to me from the Lord. He said,
Reference
2
"I am the Lord, the God of Israel. Go to Zedekiah, the king of Judah. Tell him, 'The Lord says, "I am about to hand this city over to the king of Babylonia. He will burn it down.
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3
You will not escape from his powerful hand. You will certainly be captured. You will be handed over to him. You will see the king of Babylonia with your own eyes. He will speak with you face to face. And you will go to Babylon.
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4
" ' "But listen to my promise, Zedekiah. Listen, king of Judah. I say that you will not be killed with a sword.
5
You will die in a peaceful way. People made fires to honor the kings who died before you. In the same way, they will make a fire in your honor. They will sob over you. They will say, 'My poor master!' I myself make this promise," announces the Lord.' "
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6
Then I, the prophet Jeremiah, told all of that to King Zedekiah in Jerusalem.
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Parallel theme
1 Samuel 3:18
7
At that time Nebuchadnezzar's armies were fighting against Jerusalem. They were also fighting against Lachish and Azekah. Those two cities were still holding out. They were the only cities left in Judah that had high walls around them.
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8
A message came to me from the Lord. King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all of the people in Jerusalem. He had told them to set their Hebrew slaves free.
Reference
Covenant
2 Kings 11:17
Kingdom
Jeremiah 34:17
Parallel theme
Leviticus 25:10
References Lord
Isaiah 61:1
9
All of them had to do it. That applied to male and female slaves alike. No one was allowed to hold another Jew as a slave.
10
So all of the officials and people entered into that covenant. They agreed to set their male and female slaves free. They agreed not to hold them as slaves anymore. Instead, they set them free.
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11
But later they changed their minds. They took back the people they had set free. They made them slaves again.
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Parallel theme
Proverbs 26:11
12
Then a message came to me from the Lord.
13
The Lord is the God of Israel. He says, "I made a covenant with your people long ago. I brought them out of Egypt. That is the land where they were slaves. I said,
Reference
Covenant
Jeremiah 31:32
References God
Joshua 24:17
Judges 6:8
Deuteronomy 5:27
References Lord
Exodus 24:3
14
'Every seventh year you must set your people free. You must set free all of the Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. Let them serve you for six years. Then you must let them go free.'--(Deuteronomy 15:12) But your people did not listen to me. They did not pay any attention to me.
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15
"Recently you turned away from your sins. You did what is right in my eyes. Each of you set your Hebrew slaves free. You even made a covenant in front of me. You did it in the house where I have put my Name.
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16
But now you have turned around. You have treated my name as if it were not holy. Each of you has taken back your male and female slaves. You had set them free to go where they wished. But now you have forced them to become your slaves again."
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17
So the Lord says, "You have not obeyed me. You have not set your Hebrew slaves free. So now I will set you free," announces the Lord. "I will set you free to be destroyed by war, plague and hunger. I will make all of the kingdoms on earth displeased with you.
Reference
Kingdom
Jeremiah 29:18
Deuteronomy 28:25
Jeremiah 15:4
Daniel 6:24
Esther 7:10
Parallel theme
Matthew 7:2
Galatians 6:7
James 2:13
References Lord
Deuteronomy 28:64
Word
Jeremiah 32:24
18
"The men who have broken my covenant will be punished. They have not lived up to the terms of the covenant they made in front of me. When you made that covenant, you cut a calf in two. Then you walked between its pieces. Now I will cut you to pieces.
Reference
Parallel theme
Genesis 15:10
19
That includes all of you who walked between the pieces of the calf. It includes the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials and the priests. It also includes some of the people of the land.
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Parallel theme
Jeremiah 34:10
20
"So I will hand all of those people over to their enemies who are trying to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the air and the wild animals.
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21
"I will hand King Zedekiah and his officials over to their enemies. I will hand them over to those who want to kill them. I will give them over to the armies of the king of Babylonia. They have now pulled back from you.
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22
But I am going to give an order," announces the Lord. "I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it. They will take it and burn it down. And I will completely destroy the towns of Judah. No one will be able to live there."
Reference
Parallel theme
Jeremiah 9:11
Jeremiah 39:8
Jeremiah 52:7
References Lord
Jeremiah 33:10
Jeremiah 44:22
Jeremiah 52:13
Summary of Jeremiah 34
Jeremiah 34 takes place during the final crisis before Jerusalem's destruction, when Babylonian forces are surrounding Judah and King Zedekiah is still ruling from Jerusalem. The chapter combines a direct prophecy against the king with a powerful lesson about obedience, justice, promises, and the consequences of breaking a covenant.
God first tells Jeremiah to warn Zedekiah that Jerusalem will fall and that the king will be captured by Nebuchadnezzar. Zedekiah will eventually be taken to Babylon, although God indicates that he will not die violently in the battle itself and will receive an honorable burial.
The central part of the chapter concerns a covenant that Zedekiah and the people of Jerusalem make regarding Hebrew servants. During the crisis, they agree to release their fellow Hebrews from slavery, following the principle that an Israelite servant should not be kept permanently in bondage. For a short time, the people actually obey.
However, when circumstances change and they believe there may be hope of surviving the siege, they take the servants back.
This reversal reveals something important about their hearts: their obedience was motivated by the immediate crisis rather than genuine faithfulness to God. They were willing to do what was right when they were desperate, but when they thought the danger had decreased, they returned to their old behavior.
God reminds them that their ancestors had themselves been slaves in Egypt, making their treatment of fellow Israelites particularly serious. Their national history should have taught them to value freedom and justice, yet they were exploiting their own people.
The covenant ceremony makes their actions even more serious. They had publicly made an agreement before God, symbolized by passing between divided animals, and then deliberately broke that agreement. Their failure was therefore not simply a social mistake; it was a violation of a solemn covenant made in God's presence.
God responds with a striking reversal. The people had proclaimed "freedom" to their servants, but then removed that freedom. God therefore announces that He will proclaim a different kind of freedom for them—the freedom to face sword, famine, and disease.
The chapter demonstrates that God cares deeply about how powerful people treat vulnerable people, and it also shows that religious promises have no value when they are made publicly but abandoned when obedience becomes inconvenient.
The temporary withdrawal of the Babylonian army provides the final lesson. When Babylon moves away, the people apparently believe that the danger has passed, but God explains that the army will return and complete the destruction of Jerusalem. Their temporary relief is not evidence that God's warning has failed.
The central message is that obedience to God cannot be temporary or dependent on circumstances, because the people of Jerusalem briefly released their Hebrew servants when the Babylonian siege made them afraid, but once the pressure seemed to decrease they took those servants back into slavery, breaking a covenant they had made before God; their actions reveal the danger of making promises during a crisis and abandoning them when circumstances improve, while the chapter also emphasizes God's concern for justice, the responsibility of leaders and ordinary people alike, and the seriousness of treating fellow human beings unjustly, ultimately showing that genuine obedience must remain faithful even when fear has passed and that breaking a solemn covenant carries consequences.
God first tells Jeremiah to warn Zedekiah that Jerusalem will fall and that the king will be captured by Nebuchadnezzar. Zedekiah will eventually be taken to Babylon, although God indicates that he will not die violently in the battle itself and will receive an honorable burial.
The central part of the chapter concerns a covenant that Zedekiah and the people of Jerusalem make regarding Hebrew servants. During the crisis, they agree to release their fellow Hebrews from slavery, following the principle that an Israelite servant should not be kept permanently in bondage. For a short time, the people actually obey.
However, when circumstances change and they believe there may be hope of surviving the siege, they take the servants back.
This reversal reveals something important about their hearts: their obedience was motivated by the immediate crisis rather than genuine faithfulness to God. They were willing to do what was right when they were desperate, but when they thought the danger had decreased, they returned to their old behavior.
God reminds them that their ancestors had themselves been slaves in Egypt, making their treatment of fellow Israelites particularly serious. Their national history should have taught them to value freedom and justice, yet they were exploiting their own people.
The covenant ceremony makes their actions even more serious. They had publicly made an agreement before God, symbolized by passing between divided animals, and then deliberately broke that agreement. Their failure was therefore not simply a social mistake; it was a violation of a solemn covenant made in God's presence.
God responds with a striking reversal. The people had proclaimed "freedom" to their servants, but then removed that freedom. God therefore announces that He will proclaim a different kind of freedom for them—the freedom to face sword, famine, and disease.
The chapter demonstrates that God cares deeply about how powerful people treat vulnerable people, and it also shows that religious promises have no value when they are made publicly but abandoned when obedience becomes inconvenient.
The temporary withdrawal of the Babylonian army provides the final lesson. When Babylon moves away, the people apparently believe that the danger has passed, but God explains that the army will return and complete the destruction of Jerusalem. Their temporary relief is not evidence that God's warning has failed.
The central message is that obedience to God cannot be temporary or dependent on circumstances, because the people of Jerusalem briefly released their Hebrew servants when the Babylonian siege made them afraid, but once the pressure seemed to decrease they took those servants back into slavery, breaking a covenant they had made before God; their actions reveal the danger of making promises during a crisis and abandoning them when circumstances improve, while the chapter also emphasizes God's concern for justice, the responsibility of leaders and ordinary people alike, and the seriousness of treating fellow human beings unjustly, ultimately showing that genuine obedience must remain faithful even when fear has passed and that breaking a solemn covenant carries consequences.