Zedekiah's Covenant (34:1-22) 555kiah personally comes because he broke the oath made to Nebuchadrezzar
when the latter installed him as a vassal king. Zedekiah was an oath-breaker.
- The Covenant of Liberty:
On Again, Off Again (34:8-22)
34 8 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh after King Zedekiah cut
a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to proclaim liberty
to them,^9 to send away free each person his male slave and each person his
female slave, Hebrew and Hebrewess, so that no person should make them
serve a Judahite, his kin.^10 And all the princes and all the people who en-
tered into the covenant gave heed to send away free each person his male
slave and each person his female slave, so that he should not make them
serve again; and they gave heed and sent them away. IIThen they turned
around after this and took back the male slaves and female slaves that they
had sent away free, and subjugated them to being male slaves and female
slaves.^12 And the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah from Yahweh:(^13) Thus said Yahweh, God of Israel:
I, I cut a covenant with your fathers in the day I brought them out
from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery, saying,^14 After seven
years' time you shall send away each person his Hebrew kin who was
sold to you and served you six years, yes, you shall send him away free
from your midst. But your fathers did not listen to me and did not
bend their ear.^15 And you, you turned around one day and you did
what is right in my eyes, to proclaim liberty each person to his fellow,
and you cut a covenant before me in the house upon which my name
is called;^16 then you turned around and profaned my name and took
back each person his male slave and each person his female slave
whom you sent away free according to their desire, and you subju-
gated them to be for you male slaves and female slaves.
(^17) Therefore thus said Yahweh:
You, you have not listened to me to proclaim liberty each person to his
kin and each person to his fellow.
Look I am proclaiming liberty to you-oracle of Yahweh-to the
sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine, and I will make you a
fright to all the kingdoms of the earth.^18 And I will make the men who
walked over my covenant, who did not carry out the words of the cove-
nant that they cut before me, the calf that they cut in two and walked
between its parts-^19 the princes of Judah and the princes of Jerusa-
lem, the eunuchs and the priests, and all the people of the land who
walked between the parts of the calf.^20 And I will give them into the
hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life,