Jeremiah 34:14
Ver. 14. At the end of seven years,.... Not when seven years were elapsed and fully completed; but within the compass of seven years, or as soon as the seventh year was began; for this term of seven years is the term of the seventh year coming in, and not going out, as appears from the law itself, Ex 21:9; and from an after clause in this verse, "when he hath served thee six years"; at the end of which, and the beginning of the seventh: and so Maimonides {m} interprets this law,
"he whom the sanhedrim sold served six years from the day of his sale, and at the beginning of the seventh year he was free:''
though the Vulgate Latin version very wrongly renders it, "when seven years are completed"; which version Sanctius takes a good deal of pains to reconcile to the original law. A Hebrew might sell himself for more years than six; he might sell himself for ten or twelve, as the above Jewish writer says, and nothing could release him but the year of jubilee; and that would do it, if he had served but one year {n};
let ye go every man his brother, an Hebrew, which hath been sold unto thee; or, "hath sold himself unto thee" {o}; to be a servant; for money was not given with apprentices to their masters, as is usual with us; but masters gave money for their servants, and bought them either of themselves, or of the magistrates; hence it is said, "if thou buy an Hebrew servant", &c. Ex 21:2. A Hebrew servant was sold either against his will, or with it; if a man committed a theft, and he had not wherewith to make restoration, the sanhedrim or magistrates said him: if he was exceeding poor, the law gave him liberty to sell himself; but he might not sell himself as long as he had anything left, even a covering; and after that was gone, he might sell himself; and he was bought with silver or the value of silver or by contract or bond {p};and when he hath served thee six years, thou shall let him go free from thee; or "from with thee" {q}; from being with thee, from being in thy house, as well as from being in thy service; he was to be dismissed, so as to go where he pleased, and work for himself, or another, as he thought fit;but your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear; to obey the laws of God, and particularly this concerning servants. This is not to be understood of the fathers with whom the covenant was first made, and to whom this law was first given; but their posterity in later times, who yet lived long before the present generation, and so might with great propriety be called their fathers; and by which it appears that this law had been long neglected.{m} Hilchot Abadim, c. 2. sect. 2. {n} Ibid. {o} Kl rkmy "se ventdiderit tibi", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. {p} Hilchot Abadim, c. 1. sect. 1, 2. & c. 2. sect. 1. {q} Kmem "acuta te", Schmidt. Jeremiah 34:15Ver. 15. And ye were now turned,.... Or, "today indeed ye were turned" {r} some little time ago, indeed, it must be owned, that ye turned from the evil ways of your fathers, for which you were to be commended, as having acted a better part than they:and had done right in my sight; what was acceptable to the Lord, approved of by him, being agreeably to his law; and it would have been well if they had continued so doing:in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbour; for a manservant, or maidservant, was his neighbour, and to be treated as such, and loved as himself, especially a Hebrew one, of the same nation and religion; and not to be used as a slave, or retained for ever in bondage:and ye made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name; this circumstance is mentioned as an aggravation of the breach of the covenant they had made, to dismiss their servants according to law; it was made in a very solemn manner, in the presence of God, appealing to him as a witness; it was done in the temple, a sacred place, devoted to him and his worship; which was called by his name, the temple of the Lord, and where his name was called upon, and where were the symbols of his presence.{r} Mwyh Mta wbvtw "jam, [vel] et quidem conversi fuistis hodie", Schmidt; "reversi quidem vos hodie", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. Jeremiah 34:16Ver. 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" {s}; 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 themto 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.{s} Mvpnl "in animam suam", Pagninus, Montanus; "secundum animam eorum", Piscator; "ad desideriurn suum", Junius & Tremellius. Jeremiah 34:17Ver. 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 upto 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" {t}; 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.{t} hewzl "in commotionem", Vatablus, Cocceius, Schmidt, "commotioni", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. Jeremiah 34:18Ver. 18. And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant,.... The covenant the king, princes, and all the people made, to let their servants go free, is called the Lord's covenant, because made in his name, in his presence, and before him as a witness; and very probably the calf that was cut in pieces on this occasion, after mentioned, was sacrificed to him, which made him a party concerned; unless this is to be understood of the covenant of God in general made with Israel on Mount Sinai; and so is distinct from the other covenant, which may be more especially designed in the next clause:which have not performed the words of the covenant made before me; did not perform what they promised to do in the presence of the Lord, as in Jer 34:15;when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof; which was a rite or custom used in making and confirming covenants; a calf, or some other creature, were cut in pieces, and the parts laid in order, and the covenantees passed between these parts; signifying thereby, that if they did not fulfil the engagements they entered into, they imprecated to be cut to pieces as that creature was. Some footsteps of this practice are to be seen as early as the times of Abraham, Ge 15:9; upon which place Jarchi observes, that it was the way of making a covenant to divide a beast, and pass between the parts of it; and this custom obtained among the Chaldeans, Greeks, and Romans; or what was very similar to it. Cyril {u} says this custom was by the Chaldeans, who might take it from Abraham. A people called Molotti had something of this kind among them: for they confirmed the covenants they swore to by cutting oxen into little pieces {w}; and Homer seems to have a respect to such a practice when he says that the priest, after he had prayed to Apollo, slew the sacrifice, and flayed it, and cut it in pieces, making duplicates {x}, alike to one another. Cicero {y} is thought to have the same custom in view; and likewise Virgil {z}, when he speaks of the covenant made between Romulus and Tatius king of the Sabines, whom he represents as standing armed before the altar of Jupiter, holding caps, and joining in covenant by killing a swine, and cutting it in pieces; in like manner Livy {a} describes the covenant made between the Romans and Albanians, when the herald at arms, reciting the conditions, called aloud""hear, O Jupiter", &c.''if the Roman people first fail in observing these,"strike them as I now strike this hog; and so much the more, as thou art more able and mighty;''which being said, he struck it with a flint stone; hence the phrase, "ferire foedus", to strike or make a covenant; and, in allusion to the above custom, making a covenant is commonly called, in the Old Testament, "cutting a covenant". Some versions, as the Syriac interpreter, render it, "I will make the men as the calf they cut in twain", &c. they shall be cut in pieces as that is; see Mt 24:51.{u} Contra Julian, l. 10. apud Grotium in Gen. xv. 17. {w} Zenobius apud 10. {x} mhrouv t'exetamon ------diptuca poihsantev, ep' autwn d' wmoyethsan. Iliad 1. v. 461, 462. {y} De Inventione, l. 2. sect. 20. {z} "Armati Jovis ante aram, paterasque tenentes Stabant, et caesa jungebant foedera porea". Aeneid. l. 8. {a} Hist. l. 1. p. 14. Jeremiah 34:19Ver. 19. The princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem,.... Here is a particular enumeration of the persons that had made the covenant, and transgressed it, and that should suffer for so doing; the princes of Judah, distinguished from the princes of Jerusalem, design such princes as lived without Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, and presided over them, though now at Jerusalem, having fled thither, upon the invasion of the king of Babylon, for their safety; as the princes of Jerusalem, or the magistrates of that city, are distinguished from the princes of the blood, and from the courtiers, both in this and Jer 34:21;the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land; that is, as many as had got into Jerusalem to secure themselves from the common enemy: the "priests" also were concerned herein, who had menservants, and maidservants, as well as others; and, besides, were persons doubtless concerned in drawing up the covenant and the form of an oath, as well as in slaying the sacrifice, and cutting it into pieces, and laying the parts in order: it is more surprising that there should be "eunuchs" here; that such should be in the court of the king of Judah, and have offices in it, and preside in them, as among the Gentiles. The Targum renders the word "princes":which passed between the parts of the calf; signifying their assent to the covenant, and wishing they might be so used if they broke it. Jeremiah 34:20Ver. 20. I will even give them into the hand of their enemies,.... The Chaldeans, who were the enemies of the Jews, that were come from a far country to invade, dispossess, ravage, and plunder them; and what can be a greater punishment than to be given up into an enemy's hand, to be in his power, and at his mercy?and into the hand of them that seek their life; not their wealth and substance only, but their lives also; nothing less will content them:and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven,and to the beasts of the earth; not only such should be the cruelty of their enemies that sought their lives, that they should slay them with the sword, and give them no quarter; but such their inhumanity, that they should not suffer their carcasses to be buried, but leave them exposed to birds and beasts of prey; of the princes of Judah, see Jer 52:10. Jeremiah 34:21Ver. 21. And Zedekiah king of Judah, and his princes,.... These were either the princes of the blood, the sons of Zedekiah, and his nobles and courtiers, as distinct from the princes in Jer 34:19; these shall not be spared, neither the king, nor his sons, nor those of the privy council: but thosewill I give I to the hands of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life; as in Jer 34:20;and into the hand of the king of Babylon's army; or, "even into the hand" {b} &c. and so this is an explanation of the former, and shows who their enemies were, and those that sought their life. The accomplishment of this may be seen in Jer 52:9;which are gone up from you; departed from Jerusalem, as the Chaldean army did upon hearing that Pharaoh king of Egypt was marching with his army to raise the siege of Jerusalem; upon which they left it, and went forth to meet him; and this encouraged the wicked Jews to break their covenant, and reduce their servants to bondage again, they had let go free; see Jer 37:5.{b} dybw "in manum, inquam, exercitus", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. Jeremiah 34:22Ver. 22. Behold, I will command, saith the Lord, and cause them to return to this city,.... The Lord of hosts, or armies, was "Generalissimo" of Nebuchadnezzar's army, had it at his command, and could direct if as he pleased, and order it to march and countermarch as he thought fit: it was under the direction of his providence that it departed from Jerusalem, to try the inhabitants of it; and now, by a secret instinct, he would so powerfully work upon it, and by the ordering of external causes so manage it, that it should return to Jerusalem again, and carry on the siege with redoubled rigour:and they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire; they fought against it by shooting arrows from their bows, casting stones from their engines, and by beating down the walls with their battering rams; with which making breaches, they entered in and took the city; and burnt the temple, palaces, and other houses, with fire; of all which see the accomplishment in Jer 52:4;and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without an inhabitant: many of them were already; the king of Babylon having taken, ravaged, and plundered them before he came to Jerusalem; and whither the inhabitants of them, that escaped the sword, fled for security; and others of them, that were not, now should be made desolate upon the taking of Jerusalem, as Lachish and Azekah, Jer 34:7; which should fall into the hands of the enemy, and the inhabitants thereof be forced to flee into other countries, or would be carried captive; so that they would be without any, or have but few to dwell in them.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.