Zedeklah had made a covenant] We find no account elsewhere of this covenant: "Every man should let his man-servant and his maid-servant go free;" i.e., as we learn from ver. 14, on the sabbatical year; for the seventh year was the year of release. See Deut. xv. 12.

Jer. 34:1-7 Zedekiah is told that the city shall be taken, and that he shall die a captive, but he shall die a natural death. It is better to live and die penitent in a prison, than to live and die impenitent in palace.

Jer. 34:8-22 A Jew should not be held in servitude above seven years This law they and their fathers had broken. And when there was some hope that the siege was raised, they forced the servants they ha released into their services again. Those who think to cheat God be dissembled repentance and partial reformation, put the greatest chea upon their own souls. This shows that liberty to sin, is really onl liberty to have the sorest judgments. It is just with God to disappoin expectations of mercy, when we disappoint the expectations of duty. An when reformation springs only from terror, it is seldom lasting. Solem vows thus entered into, profane the ordinances of God; and the mos forward to bind themselves by appeals to God, are commonly most read to break them. Let us look to our hearts, that our repentance may be real, and take care that the law of God regulates our conduct __________________________________________________________________

Original Hebrew