Jeremiah 34:13

Jer 34:13 Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondmen, saying,

Ver. 13. I made a covenant with your fathers.] Heb., I cut a covenant. See Jer 34:18.

Out of the house of bondmen.] Such were you when there; why then should you pull up the bridge before others which yourselves have gone over? make slaves of those whom God had made free? {Lev 25:39; Lev 25:42}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jer 34:13-14. I made a covenant with your fathers, saying, At the end of seven years — This is the literal translation of מקצ שׁבע שׁנים; but the import of the phrase is, in the course of the seventh year; or, within the term of seven years, as Dr. Waterland renders it. “The seventh year was the year of release, (Deu 15:9,) consequently servants were to continue in service but six years, and at the beginning of the seventh were to be let go free; ibid, Jer 34:12. And the words mean no more, as appears by a like form of speech, Deu 14:28, where it is said, At the end of three years thou shalt bring forth all the tithe of thy increase that year: which is to be explained by Jer 26:12, where every third year is called the year of tithing. So Christ is said to rise again after three days, Mar 8:31, which is elsewhere explained by his rising the third day. But your fathers hearkened not unto me — Their worldly profit swaying more with them than God’s command. It appears from hence, that the law, requiring them to let their servants go free after six years’ service, had been violated by the Jews for ages before the captivity, as the law respecting the sabbatical year had also been. The consequence was, that the servants had, by long disuse, lost the benefit of the gracious provision which God, in his law, had made for them, for this trespass of them and their fathers God now justly delivered them into servitude to strangers.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Or, bondage.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

The last year of Zedekiah was the sabbatical year. How just the retribution, that they who, against God's law and their own covenant, enslaved their brethren, should be doomed to bondage themselves: and that the bond-servants should enjoy the sabbatical freedom at the hands of the foe (Jer 52:16) which their own countrymen denied them!

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Now follows the message: The Prophet had, indeed, said that the word of God had been committed to him, but he interposed this narrative, that we might know for what reason God had sent this message to the Jews. For if he had thus begun, “The word came to Jeremiah from Jehovah,” and then added, “Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, I have made a covenant,” etc., the passage would have been more obscure. It was therefore necessary that the narrative should come first, and with this the Prophet’s message was connected, even that the Jews had added perjury to cruelty, and thus had committed a heinous iniquity. The Prophet now then comes to close quarters with them, and introduces God as the speaker, I made a covenant with your fathers the day I brought them up from the land of Egypt, from the house of servants

God reminded the Jews of their own law; and though he might have justly required whatever he pleased, yet he proved that the Israelites were bound to him, because he brought then, out of the house of servants Who can dare to arrogate to himself dominion over others, who is himself a servant? for there cannot be dominion where there is no liberty. Any one may be free, though without a servant; but no one can be a master except he be free. So God declares that the Israelites were not once free, for they were in a miserable state of servitude, when he stretched out his hand to them. Whence then came liberty to the Israelites? even from the gratuitous mercy of God, who made them free, who brought them forth from tyranny in Egypt. It hence follows, that they could not be masters over others, since they themselves were servants. This is the reason why he says that he made a covenant the day he brought them up from the house of servants, as though he had said, that they came forth from their prisons, because he had been pleased to draw them out, not that they might domineer for ever over their brethren, but only for a time. He relates here the law given by Moses in Exodus 21, as we have stated. At the end of seven, years every one shall set free his brother, a Hebrew, who had been sold to him, and him who has served him six years he shall let free from him, that is, that he should not be with him; but your fathers hearkened not to me, nor inclined their ear The Israelites at first, no doubt, submitted to what God had commanded, but shortly after the law was disregarded. When, therefore, he complains here that his voice was not hearkened to, it ought not to be so generally understood, as that the Law had been at all times disregarded; but it is the same as though he had said, “Your fathers formerly were disobedient, because they did not set free their servants within the prescribed time, at the end of the sixth year.”

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(13) Thus saith the Lord . . .—The prophet takes as his text the law which had been so flagrantly broken (Exo_21:2), reminding them under what circumstances that law had been given. Their fathers had then been delivered from the house of bondage, and this was part of the covenant which God had made with them—freedom and blessing being given by Him, obedience promised by them. They were never to forget the bitterness of the bondage they had known (comp. the form of the fourth commandment in Deu_5:15), and were to make it one of the fundamental laws of their national polity that no Israelite should ever pass, except by his own free choice, into a condition of hopeless life-long slavery.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel,.... The covenant God of Israel, their Creator, Redeemer, and Benefactor:

I made a covenant with your fathers; gave them a system of laws, among which was that of release of servants:

in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt; that is, at that time, quickly after, when they were come to Mount Sinai; this shows what fathers are meant, the Jewish ancestors that came out of Egypt, brought from thence by the mighty hand of God, and indulged with many favours by him, both in the wilderness, and in the land of Canaan, where he brought and settled them:

out of the house of bondmen; where they were bondmen, servants, and slaves: this is mentioned, to put them in mind of their former state and condition; to observe unto them the foundation and ground of the law concerning servants, how equitable and merciful it was, and to aggravate their sin; who though their fathers had been bondmen, and they must have been so too, had they not been released, yet acted such a cruel part to their servants, who were their brethren, in not discharging them in due time:

saying; giving out the following law, as a part of the covenant made with their fathers.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The law of God is called often a

covenant, because it containeth the will of God which he would have them do, to which (whether they express their consent or no), they are bound to consent and agree. But to the Jews all God’s laws given on Mount Sinai were a formal, explicit covenant, God explicitly telling them what he would have them to do, and they as explicitly promising they would do it, Exo 24:3. Here was a double aggravation of their sin, in breaking this covenant made between God and them:

1. From the consideration of God’s kindness in bringing them out of Egypt.

2. From the consideration of their having been bond-men in Egypt, which should hays taught them to know the hearts of bond-men, so as to have compassionated them whom they kept in the like distress in which they had been themselves, and from which God had delivered them. We stand concerned to remember the vows we make to God in our distress, for God will not forget them, Gen 35:1; as also to compassionate them who fall into the same distresses that we have been in, and out of which God hath saved us: God expecteth that we should show the same compassion to others, Mat 18:33.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

13. Egypt… the house of bond-men — This law was more sacred because of their own history. The whole people had been slaves and had been set at liberty by God’s gracious interference; it would then be peculiarly wicked and ungrateful if they held their brethren in perpetual bondage.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Out of the house of bondmen. Egypt had been a "house of bondmen" to their fathers; (Exo_13:3 Deu_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.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.