Following after the promise of restoration in the Book of Consolation in Jeremiah 30:1–33:26, the next three chapters (Jeremiah 34:1–36:32) explore the question of covenant obedience. In particular, they expose yet again Judah’s stubborn refusal to hear the Lord and respond in faith.
The three chapters, Jeremiah 34:1–36:32 are in reverse chronological order. Chapter 34 describes the nation breaking a covenant promise during Zedekiah’s reign; Jeremiah 35:1–19 describes the faithful obedience of the Rechabites towards the end of the reign of Jehoiakim, and Jeremiah 36:1–32 describes how Jehoiakim burns Jeremiah’s scrolls earlier in his reign. The concern in these chapters is not with the order of events, but rather with the moral and spiritual decline of the nation.1 In fact, reversing the chronological order exposes the root of Judah’s disobedience which is their attitude towards the Lord’s word.
The first passage (Jeremiah 34:1–7) introduces the theme of obedience that is discussed in the rest of the section. The historical setting for this passage is important. The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms under his dominion and all the peoples were fighting against Jerusalem and all of its cities.
The Lord speaks to Jeremiah as the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem begins in 589/588 BC. The Babylonian’s strategy was to place Jerusalem under siege while destroying the surrounding cities one by one.2 The siege lasted about eighteen months, from the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign until the fourth month of the eleventh year of his reign (Jeremiah 39:1–2). There was a temporary lifting of the siege at one point when the Babylonian army had to deal with an approaching Egyptian army that was seeking to come to Jerusalem’s aid. This relief was short lived and the Babylonians soon laid siege to Jerusalem again (Jeremiah 34:21–22;Jeremiah 37:5–10). The word of the Lord in Jeremiah 34:2–5 comes to Jeremiah before the siege is temporarily lifted. The temporary lifting of the siege explains the behaviour of the people in the next passage (Jeremiah 34:8–22).
The description of Nebuchadnezzar in Jeremiah 34:1 is that of a powerful, all-conquering king with the fighting troops of many vassal nations at his disposal. It highlights just how hopeless the situation was for the people of Judah.3
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms of the earth under his dominion and all the peoples were fighting against Jerusalem and all of its cities: