The events recorded in these chapters took place during the siege of Jerusalem, which lasted from about 589 to 586 B.C. During this period, there was a break in the siege. The Babylonians heard that Pharaoh Hophra (589-570 B.C.) was leading an army into Palestine from Egypt, probably in 588 B.C. (cf. 37:6-11; 44:30). The Babylonian army went to meet the Egyptian army, but the Egyptians returned home without joining battle. During this time Jerusalem enjoyed a respite from its siege. The material in this section of the book is again biographical.
"The Book of Consolation has ended, and 34:1 confronts its readers with the full force of the invading imperial army. The destruction of Jerusalem and the remainder of Judah seems inevitable (v 3) because the LORD has made Nebuchadrezzar ruler over all the nations and because burning with fire is a fitting consequence for their deeds. . . .
"This unit serves to direct the readers' attention to the issue of obedience to the LORD's word as it is explored in 34:8-22 and chaps. 35-36."446
34:1 The following message came to Jeremiah when Nebuchadnezzar and his large army were besieging Jerusalem (cf. 21:1-10). Zedekiah's rebellion against Babylon in 589 B.C. had instigated the siege (2 Kings 24:18-20-25:1; Ezek. 17:11-21).447The vassal nations under Nebuchadnezzar's suzerainty were bound to supply troops to assist him in his wars against his enemies, which they had done (cf. 2 Kings 24:2).448
"This verse underscores that the Nebuchadrezzar who now invades Judah is the same Nebuchadrezzar to whom the LORD, the creator, had granted authority over all nations,' and even the wild animals, for a time (27:6-7)."449
34:2 The prophet was to go to King Zedekiah and tell him that Israel's God was going to deliver Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar who would burn it (cf. 21:4-7; 2 Kings 25:6-7). His rebellion against Babylon's authority would not succeed.
34:3 Zedekiah would not escape but would be captured and would stand before Nebuchadnezzar face to face (cf. 39:5-7). He would also go to Babylon as a prisoner of war. All this came to pass (cf. 39:4-7; 52:7-11).
34:4-5 Zedekiah would not die by the sword, however, but in peace.450The people of Judah would lament Zedekiah's death by burning spices, a traditional way of expressing grief (cf. 22:18; 2 Chron. 16:14; 21:19). Yahweh promised this to the king. The Babylonians evidently permitted the Judeans in exile to mourn the death of their king in this way.
34:6-7 Jeremiah delivered this message to Zedekiah when Nebuchadnezzar was besieging the last two remaining fortified cities of Judah (beside Jerusalem), namely, Lachish and Azekah, both important Judean towns in the Shephelah.451Lachish stood about 25 miles southwest of Jerusalem and Azekah about 11 miles north of Lachish and about 18 miles west southwest of Jerusalem.452Lachish was larger than Jerusalem.453It fell to the Babylonians in 587 B.C.
This incident happened during the respite in the siege, as did those recorded in 32:1-15; 37-38; and 39:15-18 (cf. vv. 21-22). The year was about 588 B.C.
34:8-9 The following message came to Jeremiah from the Lord after Zedekiah had commanded all the Jerusalemites to free their fellow Israelite servants.454
34:10 The people of Jerusalem entered into a covenant to free their servants, and they followed through with their promise and liberated them. We do not know their motive(s). Perhaps the servants were needed to defend the city along with their masters, or they may have provided too many mouths for their masters to feed. Perhaps this represents repentance on the part of the masters who wanted to honor the Mosaic Covenant (cf. Exod. 21:2-6; Deut. 15:12-18). If it was repentance, it was short-lived and shallow.
34:11 Shortly thereafter the masters reneged on their promise, broke their covenant, and brought their servants back into subjection. It was a predictable response from people who had long ago and repeatedly demonstrated that they were covenant-breakers. Nebuchadnezzar's withdrawal may have been the impetus for the peoples' decision to break their promise to their servants. They may have thought that they were safe and that life would return to normal soon.
34:12-13 The Lord then sent Jeremiah to remind the people that He had made a covenant with their forefathers to set them at liberty from their bondage in Egypt (Exod. 19:4-6). They of all people should have shown mercy to others in bondage. The Passover commemorated their emancipation from Egyptian slavery.
34:14 Part of the Mosaic Covenant specified that the Israelites should liberate their servants who had sold themselves to them after six years of service (cf. Exod. 21:2-6; Deut. 15:12-18). But the forefathers had disobeyed the Lord and disregarded His word.
34:15-16 Recently the people had made a covenant to release their neighbors and had followed through with it, but then they changed their minds and brought them back into servitude. The fact that they had made this covenant in the temple indicates that they made it with the Lord as well as with one another. Breaking it profaned the Lord's name (reputation) because they had made the covenant in His name.455
34:17 Because the people had not released their servants, the Lord was going to release them from His protection to experience the sword, disease, and starvation. They would become an awful example to the other kingdoms of the earth. Then there would be no distinction between Hebrew masters and servants; they would all be servants of Nebuchadnezzar.
34:18-20 The Lord would give all the people who had broken the covenant, regardless of their social position, into the hand of their enemy. They would die without the privilege of a burial; birds and beasts would consume their carcasses (cf. 7:33; 16:4; 19:7; Deut. 28:26). They had used a typical covenant-making ritual. They had cut a young calf in two and the parties of the covenant then passed between the halves (cf. Gen. 15:10, 17).
"The fate of the animal was a picture of the fate that would befall them if they broke the covenant. The rite has its parallel in the covenant ceremonies of the ancient Near East in which a beast was cut in pieces to serve as a symbol of the judgment that would befall the covenant-breaker."456
This judgment would be the fate of the people (v. 20).
34:21 Yahweh would also give Zedekiah and his officials into the hand of the Babylonians, even though at the time of this message the Babylonian army had withdrawn from Jerusalem temporarily.
34:22 The sovereign Lord was going to command the Babylonian army to go back to Jerusalem, to fight against it, to take it, and to burn it. He would also make the cities of Judah a desolation without human inhabitants (cf. 10:22). This further breach of covenant was one more nail in the coffin of the Southern Kingdom.
"When Jeremiah redeems his cousin's land (chap. 32) and when the Rechabites refuse to drink wine (chap. 35), they act out of loyalty to ancient obligations in spite of the threatening circumstances of the Babylonian attack. When Judah's leading citizens take back their slaves, they not only violate covenants old and new; they deny the LORD's word through Jeremiah that their land had been assigned to Nebuchadrezzar's control, just as King Jehoiakim had denied it (chap. 36)."457
The theme of Judah's faithlessness carries over from chapter 34. The promise-breakers in 34:8-22 contrast with the promise-keepers in chapter 35. The events described in chapters 35 and 36 preceded those in chapters 32-34 chronologically.
This was another of Jeremiah's symbolic acts that the Lord commanded. The chapter consists of three parts: the main narrative (vv. 1-11), a prose oracle addressed to the people of Judah and Jerusalem (vv. 12-17), and a prose oracle addressed to the Rechabites (vv. 18-19).
"While ch. 36 is, in a sense, an independent unit, it is at the same time the last segment in a tradition complex' which begins at ch. 26, where Jeremiah is vindicated as a true prophet of Yahweh by Jerusalem's highest court and where the aim of his prophetic ministry is set out, and ends with ch. 36 where the continuing negative response of the people and of the king reaches a climax and the rejection of the nation is confirmed. The history of the mediation of Yahweh's word by the faithful prophet Jeremiah concludes and another complex of chapters dealing with the prophet's sufferings follows in chs. 37-43."469
