Bible Strands
Jeremiah 34:8
After King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim liberty, the word came to Jeremiah from the LORD
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The LORD speaks to Jeremiah immediately after King Zedekiah covenants with Jerusalem’s inhabitants to proclaim liberty, while the Babylonian army besieges the remaining fortified cities of Judah.
The words — הַדָּבָר (ha.davar) translates literally as "the word," and אַחֲרֵ֑י (acharei) means "after," framing the divine message as arriving subsequent to a human political agreement.
The thread — The command to proclaim liberty echoes Leviticus 25:10, and the covenant pattern parallels the royal-religious pacts recorded in 2 Kings 11:17 and 2 Kings 23:2.
Why it lands — It requires the reader to note the precise sequence of events, observing that divine revelation follows a king's public promise but precedes any actual fulfillment of freedom.
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
This is the word that came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them;
Cross-references
- Leviticus 25:10 So you are to consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be your Jubilee, when each of you is to return to his property and to his clan.
- 2 Kings 11:17 Then Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people that they would be the LORD’s people. He also made a covenant between the king and the people.
- 2 Kings 23:2 And he went up to the house of the LORD with all the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as well as the priests and the prophets—all the people small and great—and in their hearing he read all the words of the Book of the Covenant that had been found in the house of the LORD.
- Jeremiah 34:17 Therefore this is what the LORD says: You have not obeyed Me; you have not proclaimed freedom, each man for his brother and for his neighbor. So now I proclaim freedom for you, declares the LORD—freedom to fall by sword, by plague, and by famine! I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
- Leviticus 25:39 If a countryman among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, then you must not force him into slave labor.
- Nehemiah 5:1 About that time there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews.
- Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is on Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to the prisoners,
- Exodus 21:2 If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free without paying anything.
- Exodus 23:10 For six years you are to sow your land and gather its produce,
- Deuteronomy 15:12 If a fellow Hebrew, a man or a woman, is sold to you and serves you six years, then in the seventh year you must set him free.