Jeremiah 34:8
New International Version
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.

New Living Translation
This message came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah made a covenant with the people, proclaiming freedom for the slaves.

English Standard Version
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to make a proclamation of liberty to them,

Berean Standard Bible
After King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim liberty, the word came to Jeremiah from the LORD

King James Bible
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;

New King James Version
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem to proclaim liberty to them:

New American Standard Bible
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem, to proclaim release to them:

NASB 1995
The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to proclaim release to them:

NASB 1977
The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to proclaim release to them:

Legacy Standard Bible
The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh after King Zedekiah had cut a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to proclaim release to them:

Amplified Bible
The word came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had made a covenant (solemn pledge) with all the [Hebrew] people who were [slaves] in Jerusalem to proclaim liberty to them:

Christian Standard Bible
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah made a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom to them.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah made a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom to them,

American Standard Version
The word that came unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people that were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them;

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
The word that came on Jeremiah from before LORD JEHOVAH saying: “After King Tsedeqia covenanted a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem: “They shall be called ‘Set free’

Brenton Septuagint Translation
The word that came from the Lord to Jeremias, after king Sedekias had concluded a covenant with the people, to proclaim a release;

Douay-Rheims Bible
The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, after that king Sedecias had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem making a proclamation:

English Revised Version
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;

GOD'S WORD® Translation
The LORD spoke his word to Jeremiah after King Zedekiah and all the people in Jerusalem promised to free their slaves.

Good News Translation
King Zedekiah and the people of Jerusalem had made an agreement to set free

International Standard Version
This is this message from the LORD that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem proclaiming release for them.

JPS Tanakh 1917
The word that came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people that were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them;

Literal Standard Version
The word that has been to Jeremiah from YHWH, after the making of a covenant by King Zedekiah with all the people who [are] in Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them,

Majority Standard Bible
After King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim liberty, the word came to Jeremiah from the LORD

New American Bible
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom:

NET Bible
The LORD spoke to Jeremiah after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to grant their slaves their freedom.

New Revised Standard Version
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to make a proclamation of liberty to them—

New Heart English Bible
The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them;

Webster's Bible Translation
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them;

World English Bible
The word came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them,

Young's Literal Translation
The word that hath been unto Jeremiah from Jehovah, after the making by the king Zedekiah of a covenant with all the people who are in Jerusalem, to proclaim to them liberty,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Freedom for Hebrew Slaves
8After King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim liberty, the word came to Jeremiah from the LORD 9that each man should free his Hebrew slaves, both male and female, and no one should hold his fellow Jew in bondage.…

Cross References
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.

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.

Leviticus 25:39
If a countryman among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, then you must not force him into slave labor.

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.

2 Kings 23:3
So the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD to follow the LORD and to keep His commandments, decrees, and statutes with all his heart and all his soul, and to carry out the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people entered into the covenant.

Nehemiah 5:1
About that time there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews.


Treasury of Scripture

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them;

had.

2 Kings 11:17
And Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be the LORD'S people; between the king also and the people.

2 Kings 23:2,3
And the king went up into the house of the LORD, and all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem with him, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, both small and great: and he read in their ears all the words of the book of the covenant which was found in the house of the LORD…

2 Chronicles 15:12-15
And they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul; …

to proclaim.

Jeremiah 34:14,17
At the end of seven years let ye go every man his brother an Hebrew, which hath been sold unto thee; and when he hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear…

Exodus 21:2-4
If thou buy an Hebrew servant, six years he shall serve: and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing…

Exodus 23:10,11
And six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof: …

Jump to Previous
Agreement Covenant Free Freedom Jeremiah Jerusalem Liberty Making News Proclaim Proclamation Public Release Servants Slaves Word Zedekiah Zedeki'ah
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Agreement Covenant Free Freedom Jeremiah Jerusalem Liberty Making News Proclaim Proclamation Public Release Servants Slaves Word Zedekiah Zedeki'ah
Jeremiah 34
1. Jeremiah prophesies the captivity of Zedekiah and the city.
8. The princes and the people having dismissed their bond-servants,
11. contrary to the covenant of God, re-assume them.
12. Jeremiah gives them and Zedekiah into the hands of their enemies.














(8) After that the king Zedekiah had made� a covenant . . .--The remainder of the chapter brings before us an historical episode of considerable interest. The law of Moses did not allow in the case of a free-born Hebrew more than a temporary bondage of seven years (Exodus 21:2; Deuteronomy 15:12-18), extended (but under the form of serfage rather than slavery) in the later regulations of Leviticus 25:39-40 to the time that might intervene between the date of purchase and the commencement of the next year of jubilee. In 2Kings 4:1 we have an instance of the working of the law, as bringing even the sons of a prophet into this modified slavery. Only if the man preferred his state as a slave to the risks of freedom could his master retain him after the appointed limit (Exodus 21:5-6). The law had apparently fallen into disuse, and the nobles of Judah, like those of Athens before Solon, and Rome before the institution of the Tribunate, had used the law of debt to bring a large number of their fellow citizens into slavery, just as their successors did after the return from Babylon (Nehemiah 5:5). Under the pressure of the danger from the Chaldaean invasion, and that he might have the ready service of freemen instead of the forced work of slaves, perhaps also in consequence of the revival of the law, that followed on its discovery, probably in the form of the Book of Deuteronomy, in the days of Josiah (2Kings 22:8), Zedekiah had been led to promise freedom to all the slave population of this class that were within the walls of Jerusalem, either as a celebration of a Sabbatic year, or jubilee, or, irrespective of any such observance, as a reparation for past neglect. The step was probably not without its influence in giving fresh energy to the defenders of the city. The Chaldaeans, threatened by the approach of an Egyptian army (Jeremiah 37:5), raised the siege (Jeremiah 34:21). When the danger was past, however, the princes who had agreed to the emancipation returned to their old policy of oppression (Jeremiah 34:11), and those who had been liberated were brought under a bondage all the more bitter for the temporary taste of freedom. Against this perfidious tyranny the prophet, stirred by "the word of the Lord," bears his protests. His sympathies, like those of true prophets at all times, were with the poor and the oppressed. The phrase "proclaim liberty" was closely connected with the year of jubilee, as in Leviticus 25:10, Isaiah 61:1. . . . Verse 8. - A covenant. The scene of this "covenant" was the temple (veto. 15, 18). Solemn agreements of this kind were not uncommon (comp. 2 Chronicles 15:12; 2 Kings 11:17; 2 Kings 23:3; Nehemiah 10.). To proclaim liberty unto them. The phrase, a very peculiar one, is taken from the law of jubilee (Leviticus 25:10), though the prescription on which the covenant was based refers exclusively to the seventh year of the slave's servitude.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
After
אַחֲרֵ֡י (’a·ḥă·rê)
Preposition
Strong's 310: The hind or following part

King
הַמֶּ֨לֶךְ (ham·me·leḵ)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 4428: A king

Zedekiah
צִדְקִיָּ֜הוּ (ṣiḏ·qî·yā·hū)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 6667: Zedekiah -- 'Yah is righteousness', six Israelites

had made
כְּרֹת֩ (kə·rōṯ)
Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct
Strong's 3772: To cut, to destroy, consume, to covenant

a covenant
בְּרִ֗ית (bə·rîṯ)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 1285: A covenant

with
אֶת־ (’eṯ-)
Preposition
Strong's 854: Nearness, near, with, by, at, among

all
כָּל־ (kāl-)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3605: The whole, all, any, every

the people
הָעָם֙ (hā·‘ām)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 5971: A people, a tribe, troops, attendants, a flock

in Jerusalem
בִּירֽוּשָׁלִַ֔ם (bî·rū·šā·lim)
Preposition-b | Noun - proper - feminine singular
Strong's 3389: Jerusalem -- probably 'foundation of peace', capital city of all Israel

to proclaim
לִקְרֹ֥א (liq·rō)
Preposition-l | Verb - Qal - Infinitive construct
Strong's 7121: To call, proclaim, read

liberty,
דְּרֽוֹר׃ (də·rō·wr)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1865: Freedom, spontaneity of outflow, clear

the word
הַדָּבָ֛ר (had·dā·ḇār)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1697: A word, a matter, thing, a cause

came
הָיָ֥ה (hā·yāh)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 1961: To fall out, come to pass, become, be

to
אֶֽל־ (’el-)
Preposition
Strong's 413: Near, with, among, to

Jeremiah
יִרְמְיָ֖הוּ (yir·mə·yā·hū)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3414: Jeremiah -- 'Yah loosens', the name of a number of Israelites

from
מֵאֵ֣ת (mê·’êṯ)
Preposition-m | Direct object marker
Strong's 853: Untranslatable mark of the accusative case

the LORD
יְהוָ֑ה (Yah·weh)
Noun - proper - masculine singular
Strong's 3069: YHWH


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OT Prophets: Jeremiah 34:8 The word that came to Jeremiah (Jer.)
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