Text: Jeremiah 34:14
OT Text Referred to: Leviticus 25:35-46
Subject: Hebrew slave release and Jubilee legislation
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): None
Significance: Jeremiah 34:14 condemns Judah's failure to release Hebrew slaves, citing the covenant obligation that each person must free a Hebrew brother after six years of service. This draws on Leviticus 25:35-46, which distinguishes between the treatment of Israelite and non-Israelite slaves — Israelites are not to be sold as slaves permanently because "they are My servants whom I brought out of the land of Egypt" (עֲבָדַי הֵם, avadai hem, Lev 25:42). The theological basis in both texts is the same: because God redeemed Israel from Egyptian slavery, they must not permanently enslave one another. Judah's re-enslavement of freed Hebrews thus violates the exodus-based logic of Israelite social law, making their action a repudiation of the redemption that constituted Israel as a people.
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Text: Leviticus 25:35-46
OT Text Referred to: Jeremiah 34:14
Subject: Hebrew slave release violated under siege
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): Contrast
Significance: Leviticus 25:35-46 regulates the treatment of impoverished Israelites, prohibiting permanent enslavement and requiring release, grounded in the theological rationale: "they are My servants whom I brought out of Egypt — they must not be sold as slaves." Jeremiah 34:14 invokes this law as the basis for God's indictment during the Babylonian siege: Judah had failed to free Hebrew bondservants as required. The owners' cynical reversal — releasing slaves during crisis then re-enslaving them when the siege temporarily lifted — demonstrated that their compliance was pragmatic rather than covenantal. Jeremiah presents this violation of the Levitical slave-release law as a covenant-breaking offense that sealed Jerusalem's judgment.