Jer 34.1-22 deals with the capture and destruction of Jerusalem, and the capture of King Zedekiah. The whole land is devastated by war because the people rejected the Torah, and failed to set their servants free, according to a covenant between the halves that was cut in the Temple promising to do so.
v 1…The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army, with all the kingdoms of the earth under his dominion and all the peoples, were fighting against Jerusalem and against all its cities, saying,
v 2…”Thus says the Lord (Yehovah) God (Elohay) of Israel, “Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and say to him (alone): “Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold (see for yourself), I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.
v 3…And you will not escape from his hand, for you will surely be captured and delivered into his hand (in the plains of Jericho as he was trying to escape); and you will see the king of Babylon eye to eye, and he will speak with you face to face (but that will be about all because he will be blinded; eye to eye and face to face are idioms for Yom Kippur, and Zedekiah is a picture of the False Messiah when Yeshua returns. The False Messiah will be captured on Yom Kippur-Matt 24.29-31), and you will go to Babylon.'”
v 4…Yet hear the word of the Lord, O Zedekiah king of Judah! Thus says the Lord concerning you, ‘You will not die by the sword.
v 5…You will die in peace (upon his bed, and in a good relationship with the king of Babylon if he surrenders according to the word of Jeremiah), and as spices were burned for your fathers (an honorable burial-Jer 52.11; 2 Chr 16.14), the former kings who were before you, so they will burn spices for you; and they will lament for you, “Alas, lord!” For I have spoken the word,” declares the Lord.
v 6…Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem
v 7…when the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the remaining cities of Judah, that is, Lachish (there was found in Lachish letters called the “Lachish Letters” which gives us an idea of what the feeling was when the Babylonians came. They were written days after this verse because it says, “The lights of Azekah are out.” It contains references to a charge being brought up about a commander who surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar at the direction of “the prophet” who would be Jeremiah) and Azekah, for they alone remained as fortified cities among the cities of Judah (besides Jerusalem-all others had fallen).
v 8…The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to proclaim release (liberty) to them:
v 9…that each man should set free his male servant, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman; so that no one should keep them, a Jew his brother, in bondage (here you see that Hebrew and Jew were synonymous. It is also possible that this “liberty” took place without regard to their servitude or duration because they were needed in the defense of the city. It may also have been their hope to avert their present calamity. To this point, after the Babylonians left and the siege was lifted, this covenant was revoked).
v 10…And all the officials and all the people obeyed, who had entered into the covenant that each man should set free his male servant and each man his female servant, so that no one should keep them in bondage; they obeyed, and set them free.
v 11…But afterward they turned around and took back the male servants and the female servants, whom they had set free, and brought them into subjection for male servants and for female servants (the Egyptian army came to help Judah and the Babylonians lifted the siege to deal with them. Judah foolishly believed they would be gone permanently, as in Jer 34.21).
v 12…Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord (Yehovah), saying,
v 13…”Thus says the Lord God (Yehovah Elohay) of Israel, ‘I made a covenant with your forefathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, saying,
v 14…At the end of seven years each of you shall set free his Hebrew brother, who has been sold to you and has served you six years, you shall send him out free from you; but your forefathers did not obey me, or incline their ear to me (didn’t listen).
v 15…Although recently you had turned and done what was right in my sight, each man proclaiming release to his neighbor, and you had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name (it was ratified in blood in the Temple).
v 16…Yet you turned and profaned my name (which was in the covenant), and each man took back his male servant and each man his female servant, whom you had set free according to their desire, and you brought them into subjection to be your male servants and female servants.”
v 17…Therefore thus says the Lord, ‘You have not obeyed me in proclaiming release each man to his brother, and each man to his neighbor. Behold (see), I am proclaiming a release to you,’ declares the the Lord, ‘to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you a terror (an object of horror) to all the kingdoms of the earth.
v 18…And I will give the men who have transgressed my covenant, who have not fulfilled the words of the covenant which they have made before me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts (This ritual can be seen as far back as Abraham in Gen 15. The assets and liabilities are listed of both parties; clothing is exchanged as alluded to in Isa 1.18, 44, 64.6. Then weapons are exchanged, like David and Jonathan did. Then there is an exchange of names, like in marriage. Abraham’s name was changed from Abram. Yehovah took the “hey” out of Yehovah and put it in Abram’s name-Jer 23.5-6, 33.15-16; Isa 4.1. Then an animal, in this case a calf, was cut in half. That is why one says they “cut” a covenant, not “made” a covenant. After that, exchanges are made. Then they walk in a figure eight between the halves. This symbolizes something eternal or never ending. As they walk, they say, “If I ever break this covenant. let what happened to this animal happen to me,” Then there was a covenant meal, called a “Lord’s Supper” or “a meal consecrated to God.” This why Yehovah is so angry with them. Would Yehovah break this covenant? Would man? Man always does. In Gen 15 Abraham was put to sleep and a “lapid” or “torch” took his place. So, when Abraham broke it, the judgment fell on the “lapid.” The “lapid” is a term for the Messiah and this is the covenant we have with Yehovah. Yeshua is the lapid and our sins were judged in Yeshua at the cross. In Jer 34.18 a covenant was made “between the halves” and they promised to set their servants free, but then went back on their word in the covenant)-
v 19…and the officials of Judah, and the officials of Jerusalem; the court officers, and the priests, and all the people of the land, who passed between the parts of the calf-
v 20…and I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life. And their dead bodies shall be for food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth (this is an idiom for impending doom and disaster, a great slaughter).
v 21…And Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials I will give into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life, and into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, which has gone away from you (they departed Jerusalem to deal with Egypt, and this encouraged them to break the covenant).
v 22…Behold (see), I am going to command (as the Lord of the armies),’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will bring them back to this city (as Yehovah Tzavaot or “Lord of the armies” and that means all the armies in heaven and in the earth); and they (Babylon) shall fight against it and take it and burn it with fire; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant (many of them have been taken, ravaged and robbed already, but now Jerusalem will end up like Lachish and Azekah and all the other cities).”
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