Jeremiah 34:16

16 "Yet you ¹turned and ²profaned My name, 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."'

Jeremiah 34:16 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 34:16

But ye turned and polluted my name
Changed their minds, and turned from their resolutions they had entered into, and the good ways they were walking in, and returned to their former evil practices; and so polluted the name of God by taking it in vain, and breaking the covenant they had agreed to: and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom he
had set at liberty at pleasure:
or, "according to their soul" ^F19; according to their souls' desire, what was very agreeable and acceptable to them, and gave them a real pleasure; which did not last long, since they caused them to return
to their former service and bondage under them: and brought them into subjection:
forced them to come back to their houses, and into their service, and be subject to them, and obey their commands as formerly: to be unto you for servants and for handmaids;
to do the business of such, as they had done before.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F19 (Mvpnl) "in animam suam", Pagninus, Montanus; "secundum animam eorum", Piscator; "ad desideriurn suum", Junius & Tremellius.

Jeremiah 34:16 In-Context

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.

15 "Although recently you had turned and done what is 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.

16 "Yet you turned and profaned My name, 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."'

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, I am proclaiming a release to you,' declares the LORD , 'to the sword, to the pestilence and to the famine; and I will make you a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

18 'I will give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not fulfilled the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts -

Cross References

• 1. 1 Samuel 15:11; Jeremiah 34:11; Ezekiel 3:20; Ezekiel 18:24
• 2. Exodus 20:7; Leviticus 19:12

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "caused them to return"