Jeremiah 34 Study Notes

34:15-16 The king, his officials, and the people made a covenant before the Lord at the temple, only to change their minds, thus profaning God’s name.

34:17 With a devastating play on words and an irony of ironies, God would take Judah’s revoked proclamation of emancipation and make his own proclamation: Judah would experience freedom from his protection, thus falling to sword, to plague, and to famine.

34:18-20 In a covenant ceremony, a calf was cut (Hb karath, “to cut,” “to make a covenant”) in two in order that the parties to the covenant could pass between its pieces. This is similar to Gn 15:10,17, where only God walked between the pieces, figuratively vowing his own destruction if he failed to keep his word. Parties who passed between the pieces were in effect saying, “If I do not keep the terms of this covenant, may I die like this slaughtered animal.”

34:19-20 God would hand over to their enemies everyone who passed between the pieces.

34:21-22 Nebuchadnezzar’s army had withdrawn briefly, but God would give the command to bring them back to this city (Jerusalem). Archaeologists have not found a single town in Judah that was occupied from the time of this destruction up to the Hebrew return from exile.