Ye have not hearkened unto Me, in proclaiming liberty. Jeremiah 34:17 The liberty of sin W. L. Watkinson. The Word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah that all bondservants in Israel should be forthwith emancipated. At first the princes obeyed, and the enslaved were allowed to go free. But eventually the princes played falsely, and once more brought their old servants into bondage. Then comes the text with its terrible irony. I. THE MUTINY AGAINST THE LAW. In the first instance the governors felt the reasonableness of the commandment, they agreed to it, but at length they resisted it, violated it. And this spirit of revolt against the higher law is ever working in us and displaying itself in some form of disobedience. 1. There is a theoretical repudiation of the law. Literary men are ever urging upon us that the moral law as given in revelation is unphilosophical, and the sooner it is renounced by all educated people the better. One by one they ingeniously find us a way out of all the ten great precepts. In our simplicity we thought the Saviour taught us that heaven and earth might pass away, but that the moral commandments should persist in absolute authority and force, but eloquent writers affect to show that the commandments are mere bye-laws, ripe for repeal. 2. And if there is a theoretical repudiation of the law on the part of the literary few, is there not a personal, practical mutiny against it on the part of us all? In manifold ways we criticise the law, fret at it, evade it, violate it. We spurn the circumscriptions which deny us so much, and in blind passion break into forbidden ground. And yet how gracious and beautiful is the law! How generous is the law referred to in the text enjoining upon the rich and great mercy and brotherliness! And the whole of the moral law as expressed in revelation is equally rational and benign. The "commandments are not grievous." No. indeed, they are gracious. Every commandment is an illumination, a light shining in a dark place to guide our feet in a dim and perilous way. Every commandment is a salvation. The commandment enjoining love is to save us from the damnation of selfishness; enjoining meekness to save us from the devil of pride; enjoining purity to save us from the hell of lust. Every commandment is a benediction. Scientists are always descanting on the grandeur of natural law, the law which builds the sky, which transfigures the flower, which rules the stars. The scientist, the mathematician, the musician will tell you that law is good, that the secret of the world's beauty is to be found in the wonderful laws which God wrote in tables of stone long before Moses came. And ii natural law, which rules things, is so sublime, how much does that moral law, which rules spirits, excel in glory! And yet how blindly do we mutiny against the great words of light and love! Some time ago it was told in the paper that a herd of cows was being driven through a long, dark, wooden tubular bridge. Here and there in the woodwork were knotholes, which let in the sun in bars of light. The animals were afraid of these sun-bars; they shied at them, were terrified at them, and then, leaping over them, made a painful hurdle-race of it, coming out at the other end palpitating and exhausted. We are just like them. The laws of God are golden rays in a dark path, they are for our guidance and infinite perfecting and consolation. But they irritate us, they enrage us, we count them despotic barriers to our liberty and happiness, and too often we put them under our feet. "So foolish was I, and ignorant, I was as a beast before Thee." II. THE LIBERTY OF LICENCE. "Behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord." These nobles wished to be free themselves in enslaving their brethren, but in doing this they gave themselves away into servitude; they wished to enrich themselves, and they lost everything; they sought personal indulgence at the expense of their neighbours, and they suffered sword and famine and pestilence. Disobedience always means bondage, disgrace, suffering, death. A liberty to the sword, the famine, and the pestilence! Most awful is the liberty of unrighteousness; who can express the fulness of its woe! Some of you have visited the Castle of Chillon on the Lake of Geneva. In that castle is a dungeon which contains a shaft, at the bottom of which you see the waters of the lake; that shaft is called the way of liberty. Tradition says that in the old days the jailor in the darkness of the dungeon would whisper to the prisoner, "Three steps and liberty," and the poor dupe, hastily stepping forward, fell down this shaft, which was planted full of knives and spikes, the mutilated, bloody corpse finally dropping into the depths. That is precisely the liberty of sin. The dupe of sin takes a leap in the dark, he is forthwith pierced through with many sorrows, and mangled and bleeding falls into the gulf. "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." 1. I want you to feel the madness of contending with God, for that is exactly what sin means. 2. I want you to believe that only through self-limitation can you find the highest liberty and blessedness. All civilisation is the giving up of liberty to find a nobler liberty. 3. If you are to keep the law, you must seek the strength of God in Christ. Born of God, living in fellowship with Him, full of faith, of love, of hope, we shall find the yoke of the law easy, and its burden light. The inner force is equal to the outward duty. ( W. L. Watkinson. ).

Benson Commentary Jeremiah 34:1 The 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, Jeremiah 34:1 . The word which came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, when Nebuchadnezzar, &c., fought against Jerusalem — The siege was begun in the ninth year of Zedekiah, the tenth month and tenth day of the month, which answers to the latter end of our December. See Jeremiah 52:4 . Blaney thinks the prophet received this revelation a month or two after the siege was begun, or toward the latter end of Zedekiah’s ninth year; namely, during the interval between the raising the siege of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and his return to that city, after having repulsed the king of Egypt, who was coming to the succour of Zedekiah, Jeremiah 37:5 . Jeremiah, it appears, was not at this time in prison: see Jeremiah 34:4 ; Jeremiah 34:14-15 , of that chapter. And against all the cities thereof — The lesser cities of Judea, which were subject to Jerusalem, as their metropolis, called elsewhere the daughters of Judah by way of distinction from the mother city. Jeremiah 34:2 Thus 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: Jeremiah 34:2-5 . Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and thou shalt not escape, &c. — This prophecy, which threatened the king in particular, as well as the city and nation in general, so much displeased Zedekiah that he shut up Jeremiah in prison. See notes on Jeremiah 32:2-5 , where the same things are related that occur here. But thou shalt die in peace — Namely, by a natural death. The king of Babylon took him, killed his sons before his eyes, then put out his eyes, and bound him with chains, ( Jeremiah 39:7 ,) but did not put him to death, as we here learn. With the burning of thy fathers, &c., so shall they burn odours for thee — It was customary among the Jews, at the funerals of their kings, especially of those whose memories they honoured, to prepare a bed of spices, of which they made a perfume by burning them, and therein to deposite the body of the deceased prince: see 2 Chronicles 16:14 ; 2 Chronicles 21:19 . And they will lament thee, saying, Ah lord! — In these, and the foregoing words, God promises Zedekiah an honourable interment, and suitable to his quality; a favour he did not vouchsafe to Jehoiakim, Jeremiah 22:18 . Jeremiah 34:3 And 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. Jeremiah 34:4 Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah; Thus saith the LORD of thee, Thou shalt not die by the sword: Jeremiah 34:5 But 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. Jeremiah 34:6 Then Jeremiah the prophet spake all these words unto Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem, Jeremiah 34:7 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 defenced cities remained of the cities of Judah. Jeremiah 34:7 . When the king of Babylon fought against Lachish and against Azekah — See 2 Kings 18:13 ; 2 Kings 19:8 . These two cities were not far from Jerusalem, and had been fortified by Rehoboam, for the defence of his kingdom, 2 Chronicles 11:9 . After that Zedekiah had made a covenant with the people to proclaim liberty, &c. — “By the law of Moses, ( Exodus 21:2 ; Deuteronomy 15:12 ,) the Israelites were not allowed to detain their brethren of the Hebrew race in perpetual bondage, but were required to let them go free after having served six years. This law had, it seems, fallen into disuse; but King Zedekiah, upon the approach of the Chaldean army, whether from religious motives, or a political view to employ the men who were set free in the service of the war, engaged the people in a covenant to act conformably to the law; and they released their brethren accordingly. But no sooner were their fears abated, by the retreat of the Chaldeans, than, in defiance of every principle of religion, honour, and humanity, they imposed the yoke of servitude anew upon those unhappy persons. Archbishop Usher computes the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign to have been the sabbatical year, and supposes that, on this account, the covenant of general release was entered into at the beginning of that year. But the sabbatical year, which was every seventh year from that in which the Israelites entered into the possession of the land of Canaan, had nothing at all to do with the release of servants. In the year of sabbath they were only restrained from sowing their ground, and pruning their vineyards. But every seventh year, from the beginning of their service, the Hebrew bond-slaves were to be discharged. Six years were they to serve, and in the seventh they were to go out free. Only the fiftieth year, or year of jubilee, was also to be a time of general release, Leviticus 25:39-41 . But, that the sabbatical year was so, I see not the least reason to conclude, but quite the contrary.” — Blaney. Jeremiah 34:8 This 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; Jeremiah 34:9 That 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. Jeremiah 34:10 Now 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. Jeremiah 34:10-11 . Now when all the princes, &c., heard — This verse is better translated by Blaney and others thus, And all the princes hearkened, or, consented, and all the people who entered into covenant to let every one his bondman, and every one his bond-woman go free, and not to exact service of them any more, they hearkened, I say, and let them go. That is, they conformed to the obligations of the covenant, which they had entered into at the instigation of their prince. But afterward they turned, and brought them into subjection, &c. — Namely, upon the advance of the Egyptian army, which caused Nebuchadnezzar to raise the siege of Jerusalem. When they thought themselves safe from their enemies, as if they had also got out of God’s hand, they repented of their repentance, and returned to their old oppressions. Now this was not only a contempt of the divine law, as if it were of no force at all, but they might either keep it or break it as they thought fit; but it was a contempt of the covenant which they had, in a very solemn manner, (see Jeremiah 34:18-20 ,) made with him, and of that wrath which they had imprecated upon themselves in case they should break that covenant. It was jesting with God Almighty, as if he could be imposed on by fallacious promises, which, when they had gained their point, they would think themselves no longer obliged by. It was lying to God with their mouths, and flattering him with their tongues. It was likewise a contempt of the judgments of God, and setting them at defiance; as if when once the course of them was stopped a little, and interrupted, they would never proceed again, nor be revived: whereas, reprieves are so far from being pardons, that if they be abused thus, and sinners take encouragement from them to return to sin, they are but preparatives for heavier strokes of divine vengeance. Jeremiah 34:11 But 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. Jeremiah 34:12 Therefore the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Jeremiah 34:13 Thus 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, Jeremiah 34:13-14 . I made a covenant with your fathers, saying, At the end of seven years — This is the literal translation of ??? ???? ????? ; but the import of the phrase is, in the course of the seventh year; or, within the term of seven years, as Dr. Waterland renders it. “The seventh year was the year of release, ( Deuteronomy 15:9 ,) consequently servants were to continue in service but six years, and at the beginning of the seventh were to be let go free; ibid, Jeremiah 34:12 . And the words mean no more, as appears by a like form of speech, Deuteronomy 14:28 , where it is said, At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thy increase that year: which is to be explained by Jeremiah 26:12 , where every third year is called the year of tithing. So Christ is said to rise again after three days, Mark 8:31 , which is elsewhere explained by his rising the third day. But your fathers hearkened not unto me — Their worldly profit swaying more with them than God’s command. It appears from hence, that the law, requiring them to let their servants go free after six years’ service, had been violated by the Jews for ages before the captivity, as the law respecting the sabbatical year had also been. The consequence was, that the servants had, by long disuse, lost the benefit of the gracious provision which God, in his law, had made for them, for this trespass of them and their fathers God now justly delivered them into servitude to strangers. Jeremiah 34:14 At 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. Jeremiah 34:15 And 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: Jeremiah 34:15-17 . And ye were now turned — That is, reformed in this particular; and had done right in my sight — In proclaiming liberty to your servants. And ye had made a covenant before me — Had entered into solemn engagements in my presence and temple to that purpose. This was probably such a covenant as Josiah and all the people had made formerly, ( 2 Kings 23:2-3 ,) whereby they obliged themselves to serve God, and obey his laws in general, and this concerning giving freedom to their servants in particular. But ye turned — Declined from these good beginnings; and polluted my name — That is, profaned it, in swearing, or solemnly promising in and by it, to do that which you have not done. Certainly, whoever uses the name of God, by way of sanction to his promises, that the greater confidence may be placed in them, and afterward does not perform them, profanes or pollutes the name of God. Therefore, behold I proclaim liberty for you to the sword, &c. — I now declare that I give free commission and liberty to my sore judgments, the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, to invade and destroy multitudes of you. See Jeremiah 32:24 ; Jeremiah 32:36 . The expressions here used import, that these calamities come upon men by direction and commission from God, as the executioners of his justice. And to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth — Those of you who escape destruction shall be dispersed through different nations, where you shall learn by experience how great are the hardships and miseries attendant on a state of servitude. See note on Jeremiah 24:9 . Jeremiah 34:16 But 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. Jeremiah 34:17 Therefore 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. Jeremiah 34:18 And 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, Jeremiah 34:18 . When they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts — In order to ratify the covenant, they killed a calf, or young bullock, which they cut in two, and placing the two parts at some distance from each other, they passed between them; signifying by this rite that they consented to be served in the like manner, in case they violated their part of the covenant. We learn from the Holy Scriptures, and from heathen authors, that the same or similar ceremonies were in use in making and ratifying covenants and treaties in ancient times. In this way Abraham’s covenant with God was confirmed, Genesis 15:10 . And, according to Livy, lib. 1. cap. 24; and lib. 21. cap. 45, rites of a similar kind were in use among the old Romans; as we find from Homer they were also among the Greeks. Thus he tells us, when they had entered into a solemn agreement with the Trojans to put an end to the war, by the single combat of Paris and Menelaus, at the pouring out of their wine upon their sacrifice, they made the following imprecation upon those who should not observe their part of the treaty, Iliad, 3. l, 298. ????????? ???????? ???? ????? ????????? , ??? ?? ’ ????????? ??????? ???? , ?? ??? ????? . “So may their blood who first the league confound. Shed, like this wine, distain the thirsty ground.” POPE. Jeremiah 34:19 The 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; Jeremiah 34:19-22 . The princes of Judah, &c., (see Jeremiah 29:2 ,) the eunuchs — The officers belonging to the court; the priests and all the people which passed between the parts of the calf — Assenting to the solemn and awful imprecation, Let us in like manner be cut in pieces if we do not perform what we now promise. I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, &c. — God does not here threaten all the Jews, but those only who had first made, and then broken, this solemn covenant, and thereby falsified their engagements, and dealt treacherously with him. The king and nobles, and great courtiers, as well as the people, he would give into the hand of their enemies, who sought, not their wealth only, or their service, but their lives: and who should obtain what they sought; and, not content therewith, should leave their dead bodies lying unburied upon the face of the earth, a loathsome spectacle to all mankind, and an easy prey to the fowls of the heaven and the beasts of the earth. Thus doth the Lord execute justice, without respect of persons, on all that do wickedly, and who will neither be won by his mercies, nor be brought to obey him by a dread of his wrath. Behold, I will command, and cause them to return to this city — Namely, the king of Babylon’s army, which had departed for a season, having gone to meet the army of the king of Egypt. I will put it into their hearts to return, saith the Lord, to the siege, and they shall leave it no more till they have taken the city, and burned it with fire, and made the whole country desolate. The motions of armies are under the government of Divine Providence, they are all at God’s command; when he bids them come they come, and they shall certainly effect what he hath determined to be done. When we come to chapter 39. we shall read of the fulfilment of this prophecy. Observe here, reader, 1st, As an humble confidence in God is a hopeful presage of approaching deliverance, so security in sin is a sad omen of approaching destruction. 2d, When judgments are removed from a people before they have done their work, and leave them unhumbled and unreformed, they do but retreat to come on again with so much the greater force; for when God judges he will overcome. 3d, It is just with God to disappoint those expectations of mercy which his providence had excited, when we disappoint those expectations of duty which our professions, pretensions, and fair promises had given cause for. If we repent of the good we had promised, God will repent of the good he had purposed. The froward are an abomination to the Lord. With the froward he will show himself froward. Jeremiah 34:20 I 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. Jeremiah 34:21 And 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. Jeremiah 34:22 Behold, 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. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Jeremiah 34:1 The 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, CHAPTER XI A BROKEN COVENANT Jeremiah 21:1-10 , Jeremiah 34:1-22 , Jeremiah 37:1-10 "All the princes and peoplechanged their minds and reduced to bondage again all the slaves whom they had set free." Jeremiah 34:10-11 IN our previous chapter we saw that, at the point where the fragmentary record of the abortive conspiracy in the fourth year of Zedekiah came to an abrupt conclusion, Jeremiah seemed to have regained the ascendency he enjoyed under Josiah. The Jewish government had relinquished their schemes of rebellion and acquiesced once more in the supremacy of Babylon. We may possibly gather from a later chapter that Zedekiah himself paid a visit to Nebuchadnezzar to assure him of his loyalty. If so, the embassy of Elasah ben Shaphan and Gemariah ben Hilkiah was intended to assure a favourable reception for their master. The history of the next few years is lost in obscurity, but when the curtain again rises everything is changed and Judah is once more in revolt against the Chaldeans. No doubt one cause of this fresh change of policy was the renewed activity of Egypt. In the account of the conspiracy in Zedekiah’s fourth year, there is a significant absence of any reference to Egypt. Jeremiah succeeded in baffling his opponents partly because their fears of Babylon were not quieted by any assurance of Egyptian support. Now there seemed a better prospect of a successful insurrection. About the seventh year of Zedekiah, Psammetichus II of Egypt was succeeded by his brother Pharaoh Hophra, the son of Josiah’s conqueror, Pharaoh Necho. When Hophra-the Apries of Herodotus-had completed the reconquest of Ethiopia, he made a fresh attempt to carry out his father’s policy and to reestablish the ancient Egyptian supremacy in Western Asia; and, as of old, Egypt began by tampering with the allegiance of the Syrian vassals of Babylon. According to Ezekiel, { Ezekiel 17:15 } Zedekiah took the initiative: "he rebelled against him (Nebuchadnezzar) by sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people." The knowledge that an able and victorious general was seated on the Egyptian throne, along with the secret intrigues of his agents and partisans, was too much for Zedekiah’s discretion. Jeremiah’s advice was disregarded. The king surrendered himself to the guidance-we might almost say, the control-of the Egyptian party in Jerusalem; he violated his oath of allegiance to his suzerain, and the frail and battered ship of state was once more embarked on the stormy waters of rebellion. Nebuchadnezzar promptly prepared to grapple with the reviving strength of Egypt in a renewed contest for the lordship of Syria. Probably Egypt and Judah had other allies, but they are not expressly mentioned. A little later Tyre was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar; but as Ezekiel { Ezekiel 26:2 } represents Tyre as exulting over the fall of Jerusalem, she can hardly have been a benevolent neutral, much less a faithful ally. Moreover, when Nebuchadnezzar began his march into Syria, he hesitated whether he should first attack Jerusalem or Rabbath Ammon:- "The king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way to use divination: he shook the arrows to and fro, he consulted the teraphim, he looked in the liver." { Ezekiel 21:21 } Later on Baalis, king of Ammon, received the Jewish refugees and supported those who were most irreconcilable in their hostility to Nebuchadnezzar. Nevertheless the Ammonites were denounced by Jeremiah for occupying the territory of Gad, and by Ezekiel { Ezekiel 25:1-7 } for sharing the exultation of Tyre over the ruin of Judah. Probably Baalis played a double part. He may have promised support to Zedekiah, and then purchased his own pardon by betraying his ally. Nevertheless the hearty support of Egypt was worth more than the alliance of any number of the petty neighbouring states, and Nebuchadnezzar levied a great army to meet this ancient and formidable enemy of Assyria and Babylon. He marched into Judah with "all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth that were under his dominion, and all the peoples," and "fought against Jerusalem and all the cities thereof." At the beginning of the siege Zedekiah’s heart began to fail him. The course of events seemed to confirm Jeremiah’s threats, and the king, with pathetic inconsistency, sought to be reassured by the prophet himself. He sent Pashhur ben Malchiah and Zephaniah ben Maaseiah to Jeremiah with the message:- "Inquire, I pray thee, of Jehovah for us, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon maketh war against us: peradventure Jehovah wilt deal with us according to all His wondrous works, that he may go up from us." The memories of the great deliverance from Sennacherib were fresh and vivid in men’s minds. Isaiah’s denunciations had been as uncompromising as Jeremiah’s, and yet Hezekiah had been spared. "Peradventure," thought his anxious descendant, "the prophet may yet be charged with gracious messages that Jehovah repents Him of the evil and will even now rescue His Holy City." But the timid appeal only called forth a yet sterner sentence of doom. Formidable as were the enemies against whom Zedekiah craved protection, they were to be reinforced by more terrible allies; man and beast should die of a great pestilence, and Jehovah Himself should be their enemy:- "I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a strong arm, in anger and fury and great wrath." The city should be taken and burnt with fire, and the king and all others who survived should be carried away captive. Only on one condition might better terms be obtained:- "Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, the famine, and the pestilence; but he that goeth out, and falleth to the besieging Chaldeans, shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey." { Jeremiah 21:1-10 } On another occasion Zephaniah ben Maaseiah with a certain Tehucal ben Shelemiah was sent by the king to the prophet with the entreaty, "Pray now unto Jehovah our God for us." We are not told the sequel to this mission, but it is probably represented by the opening verses of chapter 34. This section has the direct and personal note which characterises the dealings of Hebrew prophets with their sovereigns. Doubtless the partisans of Egypt had had a severe struggle with Jeremiah before they captured the ear of the Jewish king, and Zedekiah was possessed to the very last with a half superstitious anxiety to keep on good terms with the prophet. Jehovah’s "iron pillar and brasen wall" would make no concession to these royal blandishments: his message had been rejected, his Master had been slighted and defied, the Chosen People and the Holy City were being betrayed to their ruin; Jeremiah would not refrain from denouncing this iniquity because the king who had sanctioned it tried to flatter his vanity by sending deferential deputations of important notables. This is the Divine sentence:- "I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, And he shall burn it with fire. Thou shalt not escape out of his hand; Thou shalt assuredly be taken prisoner; Thou shalt be delivered into his hand. Thou shalt see the king of Babylon, face to face; He shall speak to thee, mouth to mouth, And thou shalt go to Babylon." Yet there should be one doubtful mitigation of his punishment:- "Thou shalt not die by the sword; Thou shalt die in peace: With the burnings of thy fathers, the former kings that were before thee, So shall they make a burning for thee; And they shall lament thee, saying, Alas lord! For it is I that have spoken the word-it is the utterance of Jehovah." King and people were not proof against the combined terrors of the prophetic rebukes and the besieging enemy. Jeremiah regained his influence, and Jerusalem gave an earnest of the sincerity of her repentance by entering into a covenant for the emancipation of all Hebrew slaves. Deuteronomy had reenacted the ancient law that their bondage should terminate at the end of six years, { Deuteronomy 15:12 ; Cf. Exodus 21:2 ; Exodus 23:10 } but this had hot been observed: "Your fathers hearkened not unto Me, neither inclined their ear." { Jeremiah 34:14 } A large proportion of those then in slavery must have served more than six years; { Jeremiah 34:13 } and partly because of the difficulty of discrimination at such a crisis, partly by way of atonement, the Jews undertook to liberate all their slaves. This solemn reparation was made because the limitation of servitude was part of the national Torah, "the covenant that Jehovah made with their fathers in the day that He brought them forth out of the land of Egypt"- i.e., the Deuteronomic Code. Hence it implied the renewed recognition of Deuteronomy, and the restoration of the ecclesiastical order established by Josiah’s reforms. Even Josiah’s methods were imitated. He had assembled the people at the Temple and made them enter into "a covenant before Jehovah, to walk after Jehovah, to keep His commandments and testimonies and statutes with all their heart and soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people entered into the covenant." { 2 Kings 23:3 } So now Zedekiah in turn caused the people to make a covenant before Jehovah, "in the house which was called by His name," { Jeremiah 34:14 } "that every one should release his Hebrew slaves, male and female, and that no one should enslave a brother Jew." { Jeremiah 34:9 } A further sanction had been given to this vow by the observance of an ancient and significant rite. When Jehovah promised to Abraham a seed countless as the stars of heaven, He condescended to ratify His promise by causing the symbols of His presence-a smoking furnace and a burning lamp-to pass between the divided halves of a heifer, a she-goat, a ram, and between a turtle dove and a young pigeon. { Genesis 15:1-21 } Now, in like manner, a calf was cut in twain, the two halves laid opposite each other, and "the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land passed between the parts of the calf." { Jeremiah 34:19 } Similarly, after the death of Alexander the Great, the contending factions in the Macedonian army ratified a compromise by passing between the two halves of a dog. Such symbols spoke for themselves: those who used them laid themselves under a curse; they prayed that if they violated the covenant they might be slain and mutilated like the divided animals. This covenant was forthwith carried into effect, the princes and people liberating their Hebrew slaves according to their vow. We cannot, however, compare this event with the abolition of slavery in British colonies or with Abraham Lincoln’s Decree of Emancipation. The scale is altogether different: Hebrew bondage had no horrors to compare with those of the American plantations; and moreover, even at the moment, the practical results cannot have been great. Shut up in a beleaguered city, harassed by the miseries and terrors of a siege, the freedmen would see little to rejoice over in their new found freedom. Unless their friends were in Jerusalem they could not rejoin them, and in most cases they could only obtain sustenance by remaining in the households of their former masters, or by serving in the defending army. Probably this special ordinance of Deuteronomy was selected as the subject of a solemn covenant, because it not only afforded an opportunity of atoning for past sin, but also provided the means of strengthening the national defence. Such expedients were common in ancient states in moments of extreme peril. In view of Jeremiah’s persistent efforts, both before and after this incident, to make his countrymen loyally accept the Chaldean supremacy, we cannot doubt that he hoped to make terms between Zedekiah and Nebuchadnezzar. Apparently no tidings of Pharaoh Hophra’s advance had reached Jerusalem; and the nonappearance of his "horses and much people" had discredited the Egyptian party, and enabled Jeremiah to overthrow their influence with the king and people. Egypt, after all her promises, had once more proved herself a broken reed; there was nothing left but to throw themselves on Nebuchadnezzar’s mercy. But the situation was once more entirely changed by the news that Pharaoh Hophra had come forth out of Egypt "with a mighty army and a great company." { Ezekiel 17:17 } The sentinels on the walls of Jerusalem saw the besiegers break up their encampment, and march away to meet the relieving army. All thought of submitting to Babylon was given up. Indeed, if Pharaoh Hophra were to be victorious, the Jews must of necessity accept his supremacy. Meanwhile they revelled in their respite from present distress and imminent danger. Surely the new covenant was bearing fruit. Jehovah had been propitiated by their promise to observe the Torah; Pharaoh was the instrument by which God would deliver His people; or even if the Egyptians were defeated, the Divine resources were not exhausted. When Tirhakah advanced to the relief of Hezekiah, he was defeated at Eltekeh, yet Sennacherib had returned home baffled and disgraced. Naturally the partisans of Egypt, the opponents of Jeremiah, recovered their control of the king and the government. The king sent, perhaps at the first news of the Egyptian advance, to inquire of Jeremiah concerning their prospects of success. What seemed to every one else a Divine deliverance was to him a national misfortune; the hopes he had once more indulged of averting the ruin of Judah were again dashed to the ground. His answer is bitter and gloomy:- "Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which is come forth to help you, Shall return to Egypt into their own land. The Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against this city; They shall take it, and burn it with fire. Thus saith Jehovah: Do not deceive yourselves, saying, The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us: They shall not depart. Though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight against you, And there remained none but wounded men among them, Yet should they rise up every man in his tent, And burn this city with fire." Jeremiah’s protest was unavailing, and only confirmed the king and princes in their adherence to Egypt. Moreover Jeremiah had now formally disclaimed any sympathy with this great deliverance, which Pharaoh-and presumably Jehovah-had wrought for Judah. Hence it was clear that the people did not owe this blessing to the covenant to which they had submitted themselves by Jeremiah’s guidance. As at Megiddo, Jehovah had shown once more that He was with Pharaoh and against Jeremiah. Probably they would best please God by renouncing Jeremiah and all his works-the covenant included. Moreover they could take back their slaves with a clear conscience, to their own great comfort and satisfaction. True, they had sworn in the Temple with solemn and striking ceremonies, but then Jehovah Himself had manifestly released them from their oath. "All the princes and people changed their mind, and reduced to bondage again all the slaves whom they had set free." The freedmen had been rejoicing with their former masters in the prospect of national deliverance; the date of their emancipation was to mark the beginning of a new era of Jewish happiness and prosperity. When the siege was raised and the Chaldeans driven away, they could use their freedom in rebuilding the ruined cities and cultivating the wasted lands. To all such dreams there came a sudden and rough awakening: they were dragged back to their former hopeless bondage-a happy augury for the new dispensation of Divine protection and blessing! Jeremiah turned upon them in fierce wrath, like that of Elijah against Ahab when he met him taking possession of Naboth’s vineyard. They had profaned the name of Jehovah, and- "Therefore thus saith Jehovah: Ye have not hearkened unto Me to proclaim A release every one to his brother and his neighbour: Behold, I proclaim a release for you-it is the utterance of Jehovah- Unto the sword, the pestilence, and the famine; And I will make you a terror among all the kingdoms of the earth." The prophet plays upon the word "release" with grim irony. The Jews had repudiated the "release" which they had promised under solemn oath to their brethren, but Jehovah would not allow them to be so easily quit of their covenant. There should be a "release" after all, and they themselves should have the benefit of it-a "release" from happiness and prosperity, from the sacred bounds of the Temple, the Holy City, and the Land of Promise-a "release" unto "the sword, the pestilence, and the famine." "I will give the men that have transgressed My covenant into the hands of their enemies . . . Their dead bodies shall be meat for the fowls of heaven . . . And for the beasts of the earth, Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes will I give into the hand of . . . The host of the king of Babylon, which are gone up from you. Behold, I will command-it is the utterance of Jehovah- And will bring them back unto this city: They shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire. I will lay the cities of Judah waste, without inhabitant." Another broken covenant was added to the list of Judah’s sins, another promise of amendment speedily lost in disappointment and condemnation. Jeremiah might well say with his favourite Hosea:- "Oh Judah, what shall I do unto thee? Your goodness is as a morning cloud, And as the dew that goeth early away." { Hosea 6:4 } This incident has many morals; one of the most obvious is the futility of the most stringent oaths and the most solemn symbolic ritual. Whatever influence oaths may have in causing a would be liar to speak the truth, they are very poor guarantees for the performance of contracts. William the Conqueror profited little by Harold’s oath to help him to the crown of England, though it was sworn over the relics of holy saints. Wulfnoth’s whisper in Tennyson’s drama- "Swear thou today, tomorrow is thine own"- states the principle on which many oaths have been taken. The famous "blush of Sigismund" over the violation of his safe conduct to Huss was rather a token of unusual sensitiveness than a confession of exceptional guilt. The Christian Church has exalted perfidy into a sacred obligation. As Milman says:- "The fatal doctrine, confirmed by long usage, by the decrees of Pontiffs, by the assent of all ecclesiastics, and the acquiescence of the Christian world, that no promise, no oath, was binding to a heretic, had hardly been questioned, never repudiated." At first sight an oath seems to give firm assurance to a promise; what was merely a promise to man is made into a promise to God. What can be more binding upon the conscience than a promise to God? True; but He to whom the promise is made may always release from its performance. To persist in what God neither requires nor desires because of a promise to God seems absurd and even wicked. It has been said that men "have a way of calling everything they want to do a dispensation of Providence." Similarly, there are many Nays by which a man may persuade himself that God has cancelled his vows, especially if he belongs to an infallible Church with a Divine commission to grant dispensations. No doubt these Jewish slaveholders had full sacerdotal absolution from their pledge. The priests had slaves of their own. Failing ecclesiastical aid, Satan himself will play the casuist-it is one of his favourite parts-and will find the traitor full justification for breaking the most solemn contract with Heaven. If a man’s whole soul and purpose go with his promise, oaths are superfluous; otherwise, they are useless. However, the main lesson of the incident lies in its added testimony to the supreme importance which the prophets attached to social righteousness. When Jeremiah wished to knit together again the bonds of fellowship between Judah and its God, he did not make them enter into a covenant to observe ritual or to cultivate pious sentiments, but to release their slaves. It has been said that a gentleman may be known by the way in which he treats his servants; a man’s religion is better tested by his behaviour to his helpless dependents than by his attendance on the means of grace or his predilection for pious conversation. If we were right in supposing that the government supported Jeremiah because the act of emancipation would furnish recruits to man the walls, this illustrates the ultimate dependence of society upon the working classes. In emergencies, desperate efforts are made to coerce or cajole them into supporting governments by which they have been neglected or oppressed. The sequel to this covenant shows how barren and transient are concessions begotten by the terror of imminent ruin. The social covenant between all classes of the community needs to be woven strand by strand through long years of mutual helpfulness and goodwill, of peace and prosperity, if it is to endure the strain of national peril and disaster. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.