Bible Strands
Jeremiah 34:16
But now you have changed your minds and profaned My name. Each of you has taken back the menservants and maidservants whom you had set at liberty to go wherever they wanted, and you have again forced them to be your slaves.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — God speaks through Jeremiah to the people of Judah immediately after they publicly repented and freed their Hebrew slaves, only to reverse that decision when the Babylonian threat temporarily lifted.
The words — תְּחַלְּל֣וּ (te.cha.le.Lu) translates literally as "you profaned," and שׁוּב (ta.Shu.vu/ta.Shi.vu) means "you turned back" or "you took back." These verbs mark the shift from initial obedience to active covenant violation.
The thread — The charge of profaning God’s name parallels the prohibitions in Exodus 20:7 and Leviticus 19:12 against using His name falsely. The act of reclaiming freed slaves directly echoes the earlier reversal recorded in Jeremiah 34:11.
Why it lands — The text demands that public oaths and covenant commitments must be kept regardless of changing political circumstances. It establishes that breaking a sworn promise to free slaves directly violates the authority of God’s name and triggers divine judgment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
But ye turned and polluted my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom ye had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and for handmaids.
Cross-references
- Leviticus 19:12 You must not swear falsely by My name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.
- Exodus 20:7 You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave anyone unpunished who takes His name in vain.
- Jeremiah 34:11 but later they changed their minds and took back the menservants and maidservants they had freed, and they forced them to become slaves again.
- Ezekiel 3:20 Now if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die. If you did not warn him, he will die in his sin, and the righteous acts he did will not be remembered. And I will hold you responsible for his blood.
- Ezekiel 18:24 But if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and practices iniquity, committing the same abominations as the wicked, will he live? None of the righteous acts he did will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness and sin he has committed, he will die.
- 1 Samuel 15:11 “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned away from following Me and has not carried out My instructions.” And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the LORD all that night.
- Ezekiel 17:16 ‘As surely as I live,’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘he will die in Babylon, in the land of the king who enthroned him, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke.
- Ezekiel 20:39 And as for you, O house of Israel, this is what the Lord GOD says: Go and serve your idols, every one of you. But afterward, you will surely listen to Me, and you will no longer defile My holy name with your gifts and idols.
- Ezekiel 33:12 Therefore, son of man, say to your people: ‘The righteousness of the righteous man will not deliver him in the day of his transgression; neither will the wickedness of the wicked man cause him to stumble on the day he turns from his wickedness. Nor will the righteous man be able to survive by his righteousness on the day he sins.’
- Ezekiel 39:7 So I will make My holy name known among My people Israel and will no longer allow it to be profaned. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.