Jeremiah 34:8

The Lord Threatens to Destroy Those Who Wronged Their Slaves

34:8 The Lord spoke to Jeremiah after King Zedekiah had made a covenant ¹  with all the people in Jerusalem ²  to grant their slaves their freedom.

Jeremiah 34:2

34:2 The Lord God of Israel told Jeremiah ³  to go and give King Zedekiah of Judah a message. He told Jeremiah ⁴  to tell him, “The Lord says, ‘I am going to ⁵  hand this city over to the king of Babylon and he will burn it down.

Jeremiah 23:3

23:3 Then I myself will regather those of my people ⁶  who are still alive from all the countries where I have driven them. I will bring them back to their homeland. ⁷  They will greatly increase in number.

Nehemiah 10:29

10:29 hereby participate with their colleagues the town leaders ⁸  and enter into a curse and an oath ⁹  to adhere to ¹⁰  the law of God which was given through Moses the servant of God, and to obey ¹¹  carefully all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, ¹²  along with his ordinances and his statutes.

Psalms 76:11

76:11 Make vows to the Lord your God and repay them!

Let all those who surround him ¹³  bring tribute to the awesome one!

Psalms 119:106

119:106 I have vowed and solemnly sworn

to keep your just regulations.

¹ tn Usually translated “covenant.” See the study note on 11:2 for the rationale for the translation here.

² map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

³ tn Heb “told him”; the referent (Jeremiah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴ tn Heb “told him”; the referent (Jeremiah) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ tn Heb 34:1 “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord…saying, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel, “Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “I am going to….”’”’” The translation has tried to avoid some of the confusion that is created by embedding quotations within quotations by using indirect quotation in some instances; the conceptualization is the same but the style is simpler.

⁶ tn Heb “my sheep.”

⁷ tn Heb “their fold.”

⁸ tn Heb “the nobles.”

⁹ tn The expression “a curse and an oath” may be a hendiadys, meaning “an oath with penalties.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “to walk in.”

¹¹ tn Heb “keep.” See the note on the word “obey” in Neh 1:5.

¹² tn The Hebrew term translated “Lord” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

¹³ tn The phrase “all those who surround him” may refer to the surrounding nations (v. 12 may favor this), but in Ps 89:7 the phrase refers to God’s heavenly assembly.