Jeremiah 34

01

Jeremiah

Chapter 34
{Degeneration of the People - Sign Here Low Ethics - The 'Big Renege'. King Zedekiah first made an alliance with Chaldea and then went back on his oath and allied with Egypt. Things were not going well, so he decided to 'free all the slaves' to 'please God' (the Sabbath year of no work was coming up anyway).

They immediately had 'good luck'. So they decided all was now fine. So this time he lied to God and went on a big slave hunt and gathered them all up again. They reneged on their promise to God.}

{Verses 1-7: First Message of Slavery - National Slavery thru 5th Cycle of Discipline}

1-2~~The word {bible doctrine}
which came unto Jeremiah
{by function of Grace Apparatus for Perception (GAP)}
from the source of Jehovah/God -
when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,
and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth of his dominion . . .
and all the people, fought against Jerusalem,
and against all the cities thereof
{major war campaign by the Chaldeans - per verse 7 only 3 Jewish cities remained} -
saying, 2~~ "Thus said the Jehovah/God,
the Elohiym/Godhead of Israel . . .
'Proceed with a course of action'/Go {halak}
and 'speak honestly to'/'level with' {'amar}
Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, 'Thus said the Jehovah/God . . . Behold, I will keep on giving this city {18 month siege first}
into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire {fulfilled in II Kings 25:9-11 - August 586BC}."

{Note: Jeremiah is God's Messenger to Zedekiah in this verse. Zedekiah will ridicule all of Jeremiah's messages because Judah is still reaping the benefits of past blessings.}

{Note: Zedekiah means 'righteousness of the Lord'. His original name was Med-a-ni-ah (sp) which meant 'gift of the Lord. Nebuchadnezzar named him this mistaking self-righteousness for righteousness of the Lord.}

{Jeremiah's Prophecy on Zedekiah's Future Attempt to Escape}
3~~"And you shall not escape out of his hand,
but shall surely be taken - and never cease to be a prisoner for life -
{taphas twice - means he will be caught and never get free},
and delivered into his hand.
And your eyes shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon
{actually will be the LAST thing Zedekiah will see! Then be blinded},
and he shall speak with you mouth to mouth {face to face},
and you shall go to Babylon.

{Note: The story of Zedekiah's attempt to escape is in II Kings chapter 25.}

{Jeremiah's Prophecy on Zedekiah's Death}
4~~But, in contrast, 'hear, listen and obey' {shama'}
the Word of the Jehovah/God,
O Zedekiah king of Judah.
Thus said the Jehovah/God of you,
You shall not die by the sword {Jeremiah 52:8-11}.

{Note: When Zedekiah loses his kingdom, his sons are killed, his daughters sent into slavery, his eyes plucked out. THEN he will finally turn back to the Lord and remember the doctrine in his soul. He will finally die an honorable death. Some people need a 2x4 between the eyes before they listen.}

5~~You shall die in tranquility/prosperity/'inner peace' {shalowm}.
And with 'an honorable funeral'
{idiom: literally 'the burnings of your fathers'. See II Chronicles
16:14 21:19. This refers to burning aromatic spice in the honor
of a the death of the greatest of men.}
the former kings which were before you,
so shall they burn spices for you.
And they will keep on 'deeply lamenting/morning' you, saying,
'Alas Jehovah/God!'
"For I have decreed the Word", said the Jehovah/God
{the Lord always has the last Word!}.

{Note: Shalowm/shalom is the Hebrew word for a greeting. It means you wish the person tranquility and prosperity. This also means 'peace' in the sense of inner happiness. Why did this 'negative to the Lord king' get an honorable funeral? See previous verse. He turns back to the Lord after ALL his failures and got back in the Way of the Lord! Bible doctrine is stronger than all your mistakes in life!}

{See II Chronicles 36:21 - Here is a Reference to the Words He Spoke}
6~~Then Jeremiah the prophet
continually communicated categorically {dabar}
all these Words {bible doctrine/divine viewpoint}
unto Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem.

{Roll of the Military in Preserving National Freedom}
7~~When the king of Babylon's army
{best trained army in the world at this time -
tested against the Assyrians and Egyptians -
Nebuchadnezzar never lost a battle - he believed in going into
battle with a very trained and disciplined army}
fought against Jerusalem,
and against all the cities of Judah that remained . . .
against Lachish, and against Azekah:
for {only} these fortified cities remained of the cities of Judah.

{Note: There were 46-48 Jewish lines of defense at one time. Now the Jewish army was so depleted that they concentrated their defenses at these 3 points. This defense system gave the Jews 18 months to build edification complexes of the soul and God would have delivered them. But they did not 'change their minds' and remained negative to God and His Word and they went down.}

{Verses 8-22: Second Message of Slavery - The Slave Incident}
{Verses 8-9: Zedekiah's Emancipation Proclamation}
8~~The word {dabar - bible doctrine} that came to Jeremiah
from the Jehovah/God {function of GAP in the life of Jeremiah},
after that {after a certain event}
the king Zedekiah had cut a covenant/'solemn promise before God'
with all the people which were at Jerusalem,
to proclaim liberty unto them
{the Jews freed their slaves in the 'Year of Jubilee' - see Leviticus
25:10 apparently 586 BC was a year of jubilee}.

{Note: They would go into the temple and cut the throat of an animal and make the oath before God that they would do something. This is to 'cut a solemn oath'.}

{Content of Zedekiah's Covenant Before God}
9~~That {covenant follows}
every man should let his male slaves,
and every man his female slaves
{indentured servants usually to pay a debt},
being an Hebrew or an Hebrewess,
go free {with no strings - all debts cancelled}.
So that no one should use them as slaves,
of a Jew his brother {same nationality}.

10~~Now when all the princes, and all the people,
who had entered into the covenant,
heard that every one should let his male slaves,
and every man his female slaves
go free {with no strings - all debts cancelled} . . .
so that no one should use them as slaves, anymore
then they heard and obeyed, and let them go.

{Another Big Renege}
11~~ But, in contrast, afterward
{when they saw the covenant worked! The Chaldeans stopped the
siege}
they kept on reneging, and caused to return the male slaves
and the female slaves whom they had let go free
{hunted them down!},
and 'brought them into subjection/'subdued them by force' {ka-bash} for male slaves and for female slaves.

{Note: Once the pressure was off, they reverted to what they really were - four flushers and renegers!}

{Verses 12-14: Similarity to the Exodus Generation's Failures}
12-13~~Therefore the word of the Jehovah/God came to Jeremiah
from the Jehovah/God, saying, 13~~
"Thus said the Jehovah/God, the Elohiym/Godhead of Israel . . .
I 'cut a contract/covenant' with your fathers in the day
that I caused them to be brought forth out of the land of Egypt,
out of the 'house of slaves' saying, 14~~
"At the end of seven years
you shall liberate every man his brother an Hebrew,
who has been sold unto you.
And when he has served you six years
{longest time permitted for service not slavery under Jewish Law}, you shall liberate him to freedom from you {a grace provision}."
But, in contrast {to the divine command},
your fathers did not listen to and obey Me {apply it to experience}
{rejection of Doctrine},
neither concentrated {on bible study}.

{Note: See slavery clause in the Mosaic Law, Codex 3 per Exodus 21:1-2. And, it is related to the Sabbatical year, Exodus 23:10-11. Moses repeated it at the end of his life in Deuteronomy 15:12.}

15~~But you {Jeremiah's generation} are different
{turned back from Exodus generation wrongs},
and manufactured
{'asah - made 'right action' out of doctrine in their soul}
right { yashar}
in My eyes {divine viewpoint},
in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor
{making the vow to God to free all slaves.
and you cut a contract/covenant before Me
in the house which is called by My Name {the temple}.

{Note: The Jews kept a book called the 'book of yashar'. It was a book cataloging all the feats that were accomplished because of doctrine resident in their souls. So, yashar means 'right in the eyes of the Lord' or 'right according to divine viewpoint'.}

{Now the 'Big Renig'}
16~~But, in contrast {with their right action of freeing the slaves},
you kept on reneging/'revoking your policy'
and defiled/profaned My Name, and you caused to return
each one his male slave and each one his female slave . . .
whom they had freed
{had freed the slaves not recaptured and enslaved them},
according to their 'free will' {the owners did this freely}
and 'trampled them underfoot'/
'violently caused them to be brought back into subjection',
to be unto you for male slaves and for female slaves.

{Their Judgement is Coming Straight from the Lord}
17~~Therefore thus said the Jehovah/God;
"You have not listened and obeyed {shama'}
Me {Jesus Christ as the God of Israel},
when proclaiming liberty
{in agreement with the year of Jubilee or 7th Sabbatical year},
every one to his brother {fellow Hebrews only were to be released}, and every one to his neighbor.
Hear ye, hear ye,
I 'proclaim a liberty' for you,"
said the Jehovah/God,
"to the sword {military disaster},
to the pestilence {disease},
and to the famine.
I will give {grace has two sides: one is giving blessings, the other
is giving cursing}
toward you oppression/maltreatment/terror {za`avah}
from all the kingdoms of the earth {5th cycle of discipline}.

{Parenthesis ends and Statement continues in Verse 20}
18-20~~"And I will give the men
that have 'passed over' {`abar}
{same word for the Passover - the Jews forget their slavery in
Egypt!}
My contract/covenant . . .
(who have not established/perpetuated
the Words of the contract/covenant
which they had 'cut' before Me, when they cut the calf in half
{animal sacrifice to solidify the contract before God},
and passed between the parts thereof. 19~~The princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem {the slave owners},
the eunuchs {Semantic name now used for department heads,
not always castrated in this day},
and the priests {kohen -Levitical priests},
and all the people of the land . . .
who kept passing between the parts of the calf) 20~~
. . . I will even give them into the hand of their enemies,
and into the hand of them
that intensely search for their souls {nephesh}
{this included rape, murder, all to satisfy their lusts in their souls}
and their dead bodies
shall be for food to the fowls {vultures and buzzards} of the heaven,
and to the beasts {scavenger beasts like hyenas} of the earth
{see Jeremiah 12:9 for a similar reference}.

{Note: The 'solemn oath before God here was done in the temple. It was a ritual where the calf was in half and the blood flows in between. The humans taking the oath literally walk in the blood of the calf between the parts - and all the leaders and people took this oath - and then reneged. This is a picture of the real 'sacrifice' - Jesus Christ on the cross. Anyway, to make an oath on the blood of the cross was a very very very strong oath. They were saying if I do NOT keep this oath, let me also be cut in two!}

{Now a specific Message for the King}
21~~"And Zedekiah king of Judah
and his princes {other rulers responsible for the big renege}
I will give {final decision} into the hand of their enemies,
and into the hand of them that seek their souls,
and into the hand of the king of Babylon's army,
who have left you {temporarily}."

22~~"Behold, I will command", said the Jehovah/God,
"and cause them to return to this city.
And they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire.
And I will make the cities of Judah
a desolation {sh@mamah - another 5th cycle word}
without an inhabitant.