"Thus saith Jahveh: Behold, I will deliver this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, that he may burn it with fire. Jeremiah 34:3. And thou shalt not escape from his hand, but shalt certainly be seized and delivered into his hand; and thine eyes shall see the eyes of the king of Babylon, and his mouth shall speak with thy mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon. Jeremiah 34:4. But hear the word of Jahveh, O Zedekiah, king of Judah. Thus saith Jahveh concerning thee: Thou shalt not die by the sword. Jeremiah 34:5. In peace shalt thou die; and as with the burnings of thy fathers, the former kings who were before thee, so shall they make a burning for thee, and they shall wail for thee, [crying,] 'Alas, lord!' for I have spoken the word, saith Jahveh. - On Jeremiah 34:2, Jeremiah 34:3, cf. Jeremiah 32:3-5. "But hear," Jeremiah 34:4, introduces an exception to what has been said before; but the meaning of Jeremiah 34:4, Jeremiah 34:5 is disputed. They are usually understood in this say: Zedekiah shall be carried into exile to Babylon, but shall not be killed with the sword, or executed, but shall die a peaceful death, and be buried with royal honours. But C. B. Michaelis, Venema, Hitzig, and Graf take the words as an exception that will occur, should Zedekiah follow the advice given him to deliver himself up to the king of Babylon, instead of continuing the struggle. Then what is denounced in Jeremiah 34:3 will not happen; Zedekiah shall not be carried away to Babylon, but shall die as king in Jerusalem. This view rests on the hypothesis that the divine message has for its object to induce the king to submit and give up himself (cf. Jeremiah 38:17.). But this supposition has no foundation; and what must be inserted, as the condition laid before Zedekiah, "if thou dost willingly submit to the king of Babylon," is quite arbitrary, and incompatible with the spirit of the word, "But hear the word of Jahveh," for in this case Jeremiah 34:4 at least would require to run, "Obey the word of Jahveh" (שׁמע בּדבר ), as Jeremiah 38:20. To take the words שׁמע דברin the sense, "Give ear to the word, obey the word of Jahveh," is not merely inadmissible grammatically, but also against the context; for the word of Jahveh which Zedekiah is to hear, gives no directions as to how he is to act, but is simply an intimation as to what the end of his life shall be: to change or avert this does not stand in his power, so that we cannot here think of obedience or disobedience. The message in Jeremiah 34:4, Jeremiah 34:5 states more in detail what that was which lay before Zedekiah: he shall fall into the hands of the king of Babylon, be carried into exile in Babylon, yet shall not die a violent death through the sword, but die peacefully, and be buried with honour - not, like Jehoiakim, fall in battle, and be left unmourned and unburied (Jeremiah 22:18.). This intimation accords with the notices given elsewhere as to the end of Zedekiah (Jeremiah 32:5; Jeremiah 39:5-7). Although Zedekiah died a prisoner in Babylon (Jeremiah 52:11), yet his imprisonment would not necessarily be an obstacle in the way of an honourable burial after the fashion of his fathers. When Jehoiachin, after an imprisonment of thirty-seven years, was raised again to royal honours, then also might there be accorded not merely a tolerably comfortable imprisonment to Zedekiah himself, but to the Jews also, at his death, the permission to bury their king according to their national custom. Nor is anything to be found elsewhere contrary to this view of the words. The supposition that Zedekiah caused the prophet to be imprisoned on account of this message to him, which Ngelsbach has laboured hard to reconcile with the common acceptation of the passage, is wholly devoid of foundation in fact, and does not suit the time into which this message falls; for Jeremiah was not imprisoned till after the time when the Chaldeans were obliged for a season to raise the siege, on the approach of the Egyptians, and that, too, not at the command of the king, but by the watchman at the gate, on pretence that he was a deserter. "Thou shalt die in peace," in contrast with "thou shalt die by the sword," marks a peaceful death on a bed of sickness in contrast with execution, but not (what Graf introduces into the words) in addition, his being deposited in the sepulchre of his fathers. "With the burnings of thy fathers," etc., is to be understood, according to 2 Chronicles 16:14; 2 Chronicles 21:19, of the burning of aromatic spices in honour of the dead; for the burning of corpses was not customary among the Hebrews: see on 2 Chronicles 16:14. On "alas, lord!" see Jeremiah 22:18. This promise is strengthened by the addition, "for I have spoken the word," where the emphasis lies on the אני: I the Lord have spoken the word, which therefore shall certainly be fulfilled. - In Jeremiah 34:6, Jeremiah 34:7 it is further remarked in conclusion, that Jeremiah addressed these words to the king during the siege of Jerusalem, when all the cities of Judah except Lachish and Azekah were already in the power of the Chaldeans. ערי is not in apposition to ערי יהוּדה, but belongs to נשׁארוּ: "they were left among the towns of Judah as strong cities;" i.e., of the strong cities of Judah, they alone had not yet been conquered.

Jeremiah 34:13 Parallel Commentaries

I made.

Jeremiah 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land...

Exodus 24:3,7,8 And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice...

Deuteronomy 5:2,3,27 The LORD our God made a covenant with us in Horeb...

Deuteronomy 29:1 These are the words of the covenant, which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab...

Hebrews 8:10,11 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, said the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind...

in the.

Jeremiah 7:22 For I spoke not to your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt...

Jeremiah 11:4,7 Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying...

Deuteronomy 7:8 But because the LORD loved you, and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn to your fathers...

Deuteronomy 15:15 And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you...

Deuteronomy 16:12 And you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt: and you shall observe and do these statutes.

Deuteronomy 24:18 But you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and the LORD your God redeemed you there...

Joshua 24:17 For the LORD our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage...

Judges 6:8 That the LORD sent a prophet to the children of Israel, which said to them, Thus said the LORD God of Israel...

out of.

Exodus 13:3,14 And Moses said to the people, Remember this day, in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage...

Deuteronomy 5:6 I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

Deuteronomy 6:12 Then beware lest you forget the LORD, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

Deuteronomy 8:14 Then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt...

Deuteronomy 13:10 And you shall stone him with stones, that he die; because he has sought to thrust you away from the LORD your God...

Joshua 24:17 For the LORD our God, he it is that brought us up and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage...

Judges 6:8 That the LORD sent a prophet to the children of Israel, which said to them, Thus said the LORD God of Israel...