Jeremiah 34:8-22

The Cancelled Liberation of Slaves. In the interval during which the besiegers had withdrawn (Jeremiah 34:21; cf. Jeremiah 21:2; Jeremiah 37:5), Jeremiah is commissioned to condemn the breach of the promises made by king and people during the earlier straits. They had agreed to emancipate all Hebrew slaves, and had solemnly covenanted to this effect. They broke this agreement (when the Babylonian peril seemed to be removed), and in so doing they profaned (Jeremiah 34:16) Yahweh's name, by disregard of His original covenant (Jeremiah 34:18), when the law of emancipation after six years of service was first given (Jeremiah 34:13). So Yahweh proclaims a liberation of His people from Himself to the cruel tyranny of war (Jeremiah 34:17); He will cause the besiegers who have temporarily retired from them (gone up, Jeremiah 34:21) to return, as they have caused their emancipated slaves to return.

Jeremiah 34:14. The original covenant of Yahweh included the law of Deuteronomy 15:12 ff., which is here cited; the connexion with this law is not, however, very precise, since the present temporary emancipation is represented as general, apart from the period of six years of service. At the end of seven years (we should say, in the seventh year, or at the end of six years.

Jeremiah 34:18. This division of the victim is usually supposed to symbolise the fate invoked on those who break the covenant but Robertson Smith (RS 2, p. 481) suggested that the parties stood between the pieces, as a symbol that they were taken within the mystical life of the victim (Genesis 15:17 *).