[Preliminary
Comment: We come to a point where Nebuchadnezzar appears
to have withdrawn from Jerusalem [v.21] in order to deal with
some of the other stronghold cities [v.7] but Jeremiah warns Zedekiah
not to be complacent [implied] for Nebuchadnezzar will come back
and the city will be destroyed. Zedekiah will not be taken in
battle but will live in Babylon but, it turns out [see below],
he will die in prison with his eyes put out, i.e. blind. In the
second Part the people are being held to account by the Lord for
ignoring the Law in respect of slaves – see below and then for
apparently repenting but then recanting.]
PART
1: v.1-7: Zedekiah warned
v.1
God's word continues to come while Nebuchadnezzar attacks
v.1
While
Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army, and all the kingdoms
and peoples in the empire he ruled, were fighting against Jerusalem
and all its surrounding towns, this word came to Jeremiah from
the Lord:
v.2,3
Zedekiah is to be warned that the city will be taken and destroyed
v.2
‘This
is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: go to Zedekiah king
of Judah and tell him, “This is what the Lord says: I am about
to give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he
will burn it down.
v.3
You
will not escape from his grasp but will surely be captured and
given into his hands. You will see the king of Babylon with your
own eyes, and he will speak with you face to face. And you will
go to Babylon.
v.4,5
Yet Zedekiah will die peacefully [see Jer 52:8-11 for how this
was fulfilled]
v.4
‘“Yet
hear the Lord's promise to you, Zedekiah king of Judah. This is
what the Lord says concerning you: you will not die by the sword;
v.5
you
will die peacefully. As people made a funeral fire in honour of
your predecessors, the kings who ruled before you, so they will
make a fire in your honour and lament, ‘Alas, master!' I myself
make this promise, declares the Lord.”'
v.6,7
Jeremiah conveys this to Zedekiah
v.6
Then
Jeremiah the prophet told all this to Zedekiah king of Judah,
in Jerusalem,
v.7
while
the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem
and the other cities of Judah that were still holding out –
Lachish and Azekah. These were the only fortified cities left
in Judah.
PART
2: v.8-22: A Broken Covenant and the following Judgment
v.8-11
Freedom for slaves
v.8
The
word came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah had made
a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom
for the slaves.
v.9
Everyone
was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one
was to hold a fellow Hebrew in bondage.
v.10
So
all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed
that they would free their male and female slaves and no longer
hold them in bondage. They agreed, and set them free.
v.11
But
afterwards they changed their minds and took back the slaves they
had freed and enslaved them again.
[Comment:
According
to the Law, people could sell themselves into what was tantamount
to paid servanthood but the Law forbade wealthy or powerful people
making slaves of Hebrews – see Lev
25:39-43. If this had happened in this period, it was simply another
sign of the disobedience of the so-called ‘people of God', Israel.]
v.12-14
The Law had demanded that Hebrew workers be released after six
years
v.12
Then
the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:
v.13
‘This
is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with
your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land
of slavery. I said,
v.14 “Every
seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have
sold themselves to you. After they have served you for six years,
you must let them go free.” Your ancestors, however, did not listen
to me or pay attention to me.
v.15,16
The people appeared to repent of this sin but had then reneged
on it
v.15
Recently
you repented and did what is right in my sight: each of you proclaimed
freedom to your own people. You even made a covenant before me
in the house that bears my Name.
v.16
But
now you have turned round and profaned my name; each of you has
taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where
they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again.
v.17
Thus they will now die
v.17
‘Therefore
this is what the Lord says: you have not obeyed me; you have not
proclaimed freedom to your own people. So I now proclaim “freedom”
for you, declares the Lord – “freedom” to fall by the sword,
plague and famine. I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms
of the earth.
v.18,19
Having followed covenant practices, they will now die similarly
v.18
Those
who have violated my covenant and have not fulfilled the terms
of the covenant they made before me, I will treat like the calf
they cut in two and then walked between its pieces.
v.19
The
leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests
and all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of
the calf,
v.20-22
Nebuchadnezzar will come back and finish the work of judgment
v.20
I
will deliver into the hands of their enemies who want to kill
them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the
wild animals.
v.21
‘I
will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials into the
hands of their enemies who want to kill them, to the army of the
king of Babylon, which has withdrawn from you.
v.22
I
am going to give the order, declares the Lord, and I will bring
them back to this city. They will fight against it, take it and
burn it down. And I will lay waste the towns of Judah so that
no one can live there.'
Continue
to Chapter 35