Jeremiah 34
The full text of Jeremiah 34 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD while Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms and peoples in the earth under his dominion were fighting against Jerusalem and all its surrounding towns:
2 This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him: This is what the LORD says — I am about to hand this city over to the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down.
3 You will not escape from his grasp but will surely be captured and handed over to him. You will see the king of Babylon with your own eyes, and he will speak with you face to face. And you will go to Babylon.
4 Yet hear the word of the LORD, Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the LORD says about you: You will not die by the sword;
5 you will die in peace. As people made funeral fires in honor of your predecessors, the kings who preceded you, so they will make a fire in your honor and lament for you, saying, 'Alas, master!' I myself make this promise, declares the LORD.
6 Then Jeremiah the prophet told all this to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem,
7 while the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and the remaining cities of Judah — against Lachish and Azekah, for these were the only fortified cities left in Judah.
8 The word came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves.
9 Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Hebrew in bondage.
10 So all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their male and female slaves and no longer hold them in bondage. They agreed, and set them free.
11 But afterward they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again.
12 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:
13 This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I said:
14 At the end of every seven years, each of you must free any fellow Hebrew who has sold himself to you. After he has served you for six years, you must let him go free. But your ancestors did not listen to me or pay attention to me.
15 Recently you repented and did what is right in my sight: Each of you proclaimed freedom for your neighbors. You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name.
16 But now you have turned around and profaned my name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again.
17 Therefore this is what the LORD says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom to your own people. So I now proclaim 'freedom' for you, declares the LORD — freedom to fall by the sword, plague and famine. I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth.
18 The men who have violated my covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces.
19 The leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests and all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the calf,
20 I will hand over to their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals.
21 I will hand Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials over to their enemies who want to kill them, to the army of the king of Babylon, which has withdrawn from you.
22 I am going to give the command, declares the LORD, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, take it and burn it down. And I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there.
Translation notes (9)
- Jeremiah 34:4a The unexpected word 'yet' indicates that despite the judgment, Zedekiah is promised a specific form of death: not by the sword. This is presented as a mercy within the judgment.
- Jeremiah 34:5a The Hebrew bᵉšālôm tāmût means 'you will die in peace or tranquility.' This promise implies a proper royal funeral, with funeral fires and lament cries, in contrast to Jehoiakim's 'donkey burial' described in Jeremiah 22:19.
- Jeremiah 34:7a A Hebrew Ostracon, which is a piece of pottery used for writing, from Lachish (Lachish Letter IV) mentions: 'we are watching for the signals of Lachish...we cannot see Azekah.' This verse is often cited alongside this archaeological evidence.
- Jeremiah 34:8a Heb. dᵉrôr — 'release/liberty'; the jubilee-year freedom (Lev 25:10). Zedekiah's covenant to free Hebrew slaves may have been intended to gain God's favor during the siege.
- Jeremiah 34:14a Heb. reference to Ex 21:1-6 and Deut 15:12-18 — the sabbatical slave-release law. The seven-year limit was designed to prevent permanent slavery among Hebrews.
- Jeremiah 34:16a The Hebrew phrase wᵉtaḥallᵉlû 'et-šᵉmî means 'you have profaned my name.' The re-enslavement of the slaves was not only a social injustice but also a religious violation, as it dishonored God's name, which had been invoked over the covenant.
- Jeremiah 34:17a The Hebrew phrase wᵉ'ănî qōrēʾ lākem dᵉrôr means 'I am proclaiming for you a freedom.' This is a devastating irony: the freedom they refused to give to others now becomes the 'freedom' they receive, meaning they are stripped of all protection.
- Jeremiah 34:18a Heb. hā'ēgel — the covenant-cutting ceremony: cutting an animal in two and walking between the halves meant 'may I become like this if I break the covenant' (cf. Gen 15:9-17). Now the consequence is activated.
- Jeremiah 34:21a The Babylonian army had withdrawn because an Egyptian force was approaching (see Jeremiah 37:5-11). The people thought the siege was over, which explains why they re-enslaved those they had previously freed.
About this translation
The Trinity Bible Version (TBV) is Trinity Bible's own modern English translation, worked directly from the original Hebrew and honest to the earliest manuscripts. It was completed in 2026 — the most modern English Bible translation — and is exclusive to Trinity Bible. Every chapter, including all of Jeremiah, is free to read here on the web.
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