34:17Jeremiah 34:17

Under Zedekiah the people entered a solemn covenant to release their Hebrew servants according to the law and the long-neglected Jubilee, then broke it by taking the freed servants back into forced service and refusing liberty to brother and neighbor.ST Mar 31, 1914+3 In answer God proclaimed a liberty for them in ironic judgment, giving them over to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine, and to scattering and exile among all the kingdoms of the earth.ST Mar 31, 1914+2 His displeasure shows that permitting slavery and disregarding the rights of others was never pleasing to Him but violated the moral law, and that true liberty is found only in obedience to His just laws and in seeking freedom for all rather than for self alone.ST Oct 3, 1895+3 That release from bondage points beyond outward servitude to freedom from sin, which is found only in Christ as the great Sacrifice.ST Feb 9, 1915 The chapter stands among prophecies reaching through the restoration from Babylon to the more glorious restoration under Christ, with this desolation foreshadowing the desolate earth during the thousand years after His second advent when the wicked are destroyed and the righteous reign with Him.ST Jun 25, 1874+1

Under Zedekiah a covenant was made to release servants and the oppressed according to the law, an attempt to carry out the Jubilee release which had not been observed since the time of Moses.ST Mar 31, 1914+2 It was solemnly enacted by cutting a calf in two and passing between its parts, with the parties to the covenant of liberty passing between the separated pieces.ST Mar 31, 1914+1 The covenant required proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and every man to his neighbour, by setting fellow Israelites free.ST Mar 31, 1914+1

That covenant was broken when the people failed to proclaim that liberty and took back the Hebrew servants whom they had freed.ST Mar 31, 1914+2 Their service had been agreed to and paid for in advance, but keeping them beyond the agreed term made the continued service involuntary.RH Feb 24, 1863 In beginning to proclaim freedom and then failing to honor the promise, they polluted the Lord's name.ST Feb 10, 1914

In answer God proclaimed for them an ironic liberty, not the freedom they had withheld but freedom to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine.ST Mar 31, 1914+4 With that He appointed removal, scattering and exile among all the kingdoms of the earth, giving a people who refused to give liberty over to bondage and affliction.ST Mar 31, 1914+4 Such enslaving and denial of liberty was part of the oppression of the laboring classes charged against the Jews before their destruction by Nebuchadnezzar.RH Oct 8, 1861

The events belong to the two years before Jerusalem fell, near the last of Jeremiah's work in Judah.RH Jul 27, 1916+1 In time the chapter stands after Jeremiah 21 and before Jeremiah 37, though it is placed out of chronological order with the prophecies after Jeremiah 20 when the manuscript rolls were gathered together into one book.ST Oct 27, 1909 That displacement changes nothing in the teaching, since the chapter itself makes its time clear.ST Oct 27, 1909 The warning recalls God's covenant with Abraham made before Israel became a nation, coming 1,323 years later, showing that the long delay did not make the covenant or the warning any less present or binding.ST Mar 31, 1914

God rebuked Israel for failing to proclaim universal liberty to brothers and neighbors as commanded.ST Oct 3, 1895 In place of the freedom they refused to give, he proclaimed for them freedom to violent death, disease, hunger, and exile among all nations.ST Oct 3, 1895 Disregard for the rights of others displeases God, and his punishments fall for that reason.ST Oct 3, 1895 Permitting the Jews to own slaves was never pleasing to him, and their treatment of slavery violated the moral law.ST May 20, 1875 True freedom is not seeking liberty for self alone, which even selfish people do, but caring for and pleading for the rights and freedom of all people, so believers must not ask for special exemption from unjust laws for themselves while others remain bound.ST Oct 3, 1895

Israel's refusal to proclaim liberty brought bondage and affliction, for God gave the people over to the sword, pestilence, famine, and exile and scattering among the kingdoms.RH May 24, 1906+1 Their failure to obey the command to proclaim liberty in the promised land teaches that true liberty is found only in obedience to God's just laws.RH May 24, 1906 The judgment on Judah for refusing to free fellow Israelites as commanded stands as warning against adopting slavery and disobeying the laws that protected servants' freedom.RH Oct 8, 1861

A sacrifice with its pieces separated was used to make the covenant of liberty, with the covenant parties passing between the pieces.ST Feb 9, 1915 The liberty concerns release from bondage, which is bondage to sin.ST Feb 9, 1915 True freedom from sin is found only in Christ, whom the sacrifices represented as the great Sacrifice.ST Feb 9, 1915

The proclamation of liberty to sword, pestilence, famine, and removal describes the desolation of the earth during the thousand years after the second advent of Christ.ST Jun 25, 1874 At His coming all wicked men are destroyed and the earth is left desolate.ST Jun 25, 1874 At that same coming the righteous dead have been raised and the living righteous changed to immortality.ST Jun 25, 1874 Having been made immortal, they have ascended with the Lord to the eternal city to reign with Him in the judgment of the wicked.ST Jun 25, 1874 The chapter stands among prophecies that look forward through the restoration from Babylon to the more glorious restoration under Christ Jesus our Lord.ST Oct 27, 1909