Verse 1. - All the kingdoms of the earth; etc.; rather, of the land. The accumulation of phrases is to convey the composite character of the Chaldean army. And against all the cities thereof; i.e. the fortified cities which still held out - against Lachish and Azekah, if no more (per. 7).

Verses 2, 3. - (Getup. these verses with Jeremiah 32:3-5.)

Verse 4. - Yet hear the word of the Lord, etc. Clearly this introduces a limitation of the foregoing threat. Zedekiah will, it is true, be carried to Babylon, but he will not suffer a violent death; he will "die in peace," and be buried with all customary royal honours. A difficulty, however, has been felt in admitting this view. How could Zedekiah be said to die in peace, when he was "in prison till the day of his death" (Jeremiah 52:11)? and how could the deposed king of a captive people be honoured with a public mourning? The reply is

(1) that, as compared with a cruel death by flaying or impalement, it was "peace" to live in the obscure quiet of a prison; and

(2) that, as the Jews appear to have been left very much to themselves (see Ezekiel, passim), it is credible enough that they were allowed to show the customary honours to a deceased representative of David. At any rate, the alternative view seems not in accordance with sound exegesis, viz. that the verse means this, "If thou obey the word of the Lord, and surrender thyself to Nebuchadnezzar, thou shalt live and die in peaceable possession of the throne." What parallel can be produced for this violent interpretation?

Verse 5. - With the burnings of thy fathers. It was customary to burn spices at royal funerals (2 Chronicles 16:14; 2 Chronicles 21:19). Saying, Ah lord! (see on Jeremiah 22:18). The second of the group of prophecies in Jeremiah 34, 35. is composed of vers. 8-22. It contains a denunciation of the Jews who, at the beginning of the siege, had emancipated their Hebrew slaves (according to Exodus 21:1-4; Deuteronomy 15:12), but after the withdrawal of the Chaldeans had resumed possession of them. Ver. 21 is couched in a form which indicates the precise date of the prophecy, viz. before the Chaldeans returned to renew the siege of Jerusalem.

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.

Verse 9. - Should serve himself of them; literally, should work through them; i.e. "should employ them for forced labour;" as in Jeremiah 25:13.

Verse 10. - Now when all the princes, etc. This verse should rather be rendered thus: Then all the princes, and all the people, etc., obeyed, every one letting his slave, and every one his handmaid, go free, not serving them. selves of them any more; they even obeyed, and let them go.

Verse 13. - Out of the house of bondmen. Egypt had been a "house of bondmen" to their fathers (Exodus 13:3; Deuteronomy 6:12, and elsewhere); let them not make the holy city thus grievous to those who were equally with themselves children of Jehovah's redeemed ones.

Verse 14. - At the end of seven years, etc. This is the literal rendering, but the sense, as is clear from the parallel passage in Deuteronomy 15:12, and indeed from the next clause of this very verse, is "in the seventh (not, the eighth) year."

Verse 15. - Ye were now turned; or, ye returned (the primary meaning is simply "to turn;" hence

(1) to turn away, as in ver. 16;

(2) to return, as here; comp. (Jeremiah 8:4).

Verse 17. - I proclaim a liberty for you. Judah is henceforth to be "lord of himself - that heritage of woe;" or rather, he is to become the slave of Sword, Pestilence, and Famine. The "liberty" now proclaimed does not profit Judah, who so much desires it. I will make you to be removed; rather, I will make you a shuddering (as Jeremiah 15:4).

Verse 18. - When they out the calf in twain, etc. This clause should be translated differently, and placed, for clearness, in a parenthesis (the calf which they cut in twain, and between the parts of which they passed). The division of the calf might, in fact, be called in Hebrew either "the covenant" or "the token of the covenant" (comp. Genesis 17:10, 11). It was a solemn assurance that he who should transgress God's Law should share the same fate as the victim. The same idea seems to have dictated the Hebrew phrase, "to cut a covenant," and the Greek and Latin equivalents (ὅρκια τέμνειν: foedus icere); comp. the parallel narrative in Genesis 15:10.

Verse 20. - And their dead bodies, etc. One of Jeremiah's repetitions (see Jeremiah 7:33).

Verse 21. - And Zedekiah... and his princes. Graf infers from the separate mention of the king and his princes that these had themselves been unfaithful to the covenant. But the threat in this verse seems merely intended to enforce the preceding one by specializing the most prominent sufferers. Parallel passage: Jeremiah 21:7. Which are gone up from you (see Jeremiah 37:5).