the Second Week after Easter
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Nova Vulgata
Isaiæ 34:10
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- AmericanEncyclopedias:
- InternationalParallel Translations
Nocte et die non extinguetur, in sempiternum ascendet fumus ejus, a generatione in generationem desolabitur, in s�cula s�culorum non erit transiens per eam.
Audierunt ergo omnes principes et universus populus qui inierant pactum ut dimitteret unusquisque servum suum et unusquisque ancillam suam liberos, et ultra non dominarentur eis: audierunt igitur, et dimiserunt.
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
when: Jeremiah 26:10, Jeremiah 26:16, Jeremiah 36:12, Jeremiah 36:24, Jeremiah 36:25, Jeremiah 38:4
then: Jeremiah 3:10, Jeremiah 3:11, Isaiah 29:13, Mark 6:20
Reciprocal: Exodus 14:5 - Why have we Jeremiah 34:9 - serve Jeremiah 34:15 - in proclaiming Jeremiah 34:19 - princes
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Now when all the princes, and all the people, which had entered into the covenant,.... The king had made with the people. Here the princes are mentioned, who were not before, but included in the people; they and the rest of the people are here meant, who having agreed to the covenant,
heard that everyone should let his manservant, and everyone his maidservant, go free, that none should serve themselves of them any more; or any longer, which they had done, contrary to law: when they understood that this was the sum of the covenant they had entered into, and this the intent of the proclamation they agreed unto; or when they heard the law read and explained by the prophet, concerning the manumission of the Hebrew servants, when the time of their servitude was expired,
then they obeyed, and let [them] go; dismissed them from their service, in obedience to the law of God, agreeably to their own covenant, and the proclamation of liberty they assented to. The whole might be rendered thus, "and all the princes and all the people obeyed, which had entered into the covenant, to let everyone his manservant, and everyone his maidservant, go free, not to serve themselves of them any more, and they obeyed, [I say], to let [them] go"; so far they did well, and were praiseworthy, that they kept the law of God, and their own covenant.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
It is usual with commentators to say that, the laws dealing with the emancipation of the Hebrew slaves, as also that of the land resting during the sabbatical year, were not observed. The narrative teaches us the exact contrary. The manumission of the slaves on the present occasion was the spontaneous act of Zedekiah and the people. They knew of the law, and acknowledged its obligation. The observance of it was, no doubt, lax: the majority let their own selfish interests prevail; but the minority made might give way to right, and Zedekiah supported their efforts though only in a weak way.
Early in January, in the ninth year of Zedekiah, the Chaldaean army approached Jerusalem. The people made a covenant with the king, who appears as the abettor of the measure, to let their slaves go free. Possibly patriotism had its share in this: and as Jerusalem was strongly fortified, all classes possibly hoped that if the slaves were manumitted, they too would labor with a more hearty good-will in resisting the enemy. In the summer of the same year the Egyptians advanced to the rescue, and Nebuchadnezzar withdrew to meet their attack. The Jews with a strange levity, which sets them before us in a most despicable light, at once forced the manumitted slaves back into bondage. With noble indignation Jeremiah rebukes them for their treachery, assures them that the Chaldaean army will return, and warns them of the certainty of the punishment which they so richly merited.
Jeremiah 34:8
As the Chaldaean army swept over the country the wealthier classes would all flee to Jerusalem, taking with them their households. And as the Mosaic Law was probably more carefully kept there than in the country, the presence in these families of slaves who had grown grey in service may have given offence to the stricter classes at the capital.
To proclaim liberty unto them - The words are those of the proclamation of the year of jubile to the people, whereupon it became their duty to set their slaves free.
Jeremiah 34:9
Should serve himself of them - Should make them serve him (see Jeremiah 25:14).
Jeremiah 34:11
They turned, and caused ... to return - But afterward they again made the slaves return.
Jeremiah 34:13
The house of bondmen - The miserable prison in which, after being worked in the fields all day in gangs, the slaves were shut up at night.
Jeremiah 34:16
At their pleasure - literally, for themselves.
Jeremiah 34:17
I will make you to be removed into - “I will cause you to be a terror unto.” Men would shudder at them.
Jeremiah 34:18
The words ... - The Jews spoke of “cutting” a covenant, because the contracting parties cut a calf in twain and passed between the pieces. Thus cutting a covenant and cutting a calf in twain, meant the same thing.
Jeremiah 34:21
Which are gone up from you - i. e., which have departed for the present, and have raised the siege.