Jeremiah 34:17

17 "{Therefore} thus says Yahweh, 'You have not listened to me to proclaim release each one to his fellow countryman and each one to his neighbor. Look, I [am] going to proclaim to you a release,' {declares} Yahweh, 'to the sword, to the plague, and to the famine, and I will make you a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

Jeremiah 34:17 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 34:17

Therefore thus saith the Lord
This being the case, and this their crime, which was provoking to the Lord; ye have not hearkened unto me in proclaiming liberty everyone to his
brother, and everyone to his neighbour;
for though they did proclaim liberty, they did not act according to it; they did not give the liberty they proclaimed, at least they did not continue so to do; as soon almost as they had granted the favour, they took it away again; and because they did not persevere in well doing, it is reckoned by the Lord as not done at all: behold, I proclaim liberty for you, saith the Lord;
or rather against them; he dismissed them from his service, care, and protection, and consigned them to other lords and masters: he gave them up to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine;
to rule over them; and gave them liberty to make havoc of them, and destroy them, that what was left by the one might be seized on by the other: and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth:
or, "for a commotion" ^F20; to be moved, and wander from place to place in great fear and terror, not knowing where to settle or live comfortably. This was a liberty to go about in foreign countries where they could, for relief and shelter, being banished from their own land; but this was a liberty very miserable and uncomfortable; and indeed no other than captivity and bondage; and so it is threatened that what remained of them, who were not destroyed with the sword of the Chaldeans, or perished not by pestilence and famine, should be carried captive, and be miserable vagabonds in each of the kingdoms and nations of the world.

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 (hewzl) "in commotionem", Vatablus, Cocceius, Schmidt, "commotioni", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Jeremiah 34:17 In-Context

15 And you turned back {recently} and you did right in my eyes, to proclaim release each one to his neighbor, and you {made} a covenant {before me} in the house that is called {by} my name.

16 But you turned back and you profaned my name when you brought back each one his [male] slave and each one his female slave, whom you had let go free according to their desire, and you subdued them to be to you as [male] slaves and as female slaves.'

17 "{Therefore} thus says Yahweh, 'You have not listened to me to proclaim release each one to his fellow countryman and each one to his neighbor. Look, I [am] going to proclaim to you a release,' {declares} Yahweh, 'to the sword, to the plague, and to the famine, and I will make you a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

18 And I will make the men who transgressed my covenant, who have not kept the words of the covenant that they {made} {before me}, [like] the calf which they cut in two and they passed between its parts--

19 the officials of Judah, and the officials of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf--

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "To thus"
• [b]. Literally "a declaration of"