Zedekiah's Covenant (34:1-22) 567- and I will bring them back to this city. This same prediction is made to the
king in 37:7-10. For the prophecy of Jerusalem's destruction elsewhere in Jere-
miah's preaching, see Note on 34:2. Here is another wordplay: as the people
"took back" (tasibU ) their slaves (v 16), so also will Yahweh "bring back"
(hasibotfm) the Babylonian army to Jerusalem. More punishment to fit the
crime. The LXX has "land" instead of "city," which is not right (Giesebrecht).
It is the city that will be attacked, taken, and burned with fire.
and they will bum it with fire; and the cities of Judah I will make a desola-
tion without inhabitant. For a list of land and city curses in Jeremiah, see
Note on 48:9.
MESSAGE AND AUDIENCE
The audience is told here about a word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh
after Zedekiah and the people of Jerusalem made a solemn covenant to liber-
ate their Hebrew slaves, male and female both. The narrator ascribes a lofty
aim to the action: "that no person should make them serve a Judahite, his kin."
The princes and people followed through on their promise and released their
slaves. But soon afterward, they turned around and subjugated them again to
slavery.
Yahweh speaks to this perfidy in four oracles. In the first, presumably ad-
dressed to a broad Jerusalem audience, he begins with a poignant reminder
that he cut a covenant with the ancestors when he delivered them out of Egypt,
which, as they all know, was a house of slavery. That covenant contained pro-
visions for the people to release their Hebrew slaves after six years of work.
Previous generations conveniently ignored this command, and as for the
present generation, well, they ignored it too, but Yahweh says they neverthe-
less had the good sense now to turn around and do what was right. They re-
leased their Hebrew slaves, which was the slaves' desire and what the Law of
Jubilee required, but then they profaned Yahweh's name by reclaiming the
slaves. In a second brief oracle, Yahweh sums up the indictment: ''You, you
have not listened to me to proclaim liberty each person to his kin and each
person to his fellow."
The two oracles following are riveting judgment. In Oracle III, Yahweh tells
those who failed to proclaim liberty to their slaves that he is proclaiming a du-
bious liberty to them: they can have their choice of sword, famine, or pesti-
lence. Whichever they choose, Yahweh will make them a fright to every
kingdom of the earth. Those participating in the covenant recently cut will be-
come the calf cut in two, between which the princes of Jerusalem and Judah,
eunuchs and priests, and people of the land walked in solemn procession. Yah-
weh says he will give them all into the hand of those seeking their lives. What
is more, their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the skies and the beasts
of the earth. As for Zedekiah and his princes, they too will be given into the
hands of their enemies, namely, the army of Babylon currently on another er-
rand. The audience may perceive that Zedekiah and the princes will not die or