(13) Thus saith the Lord . . .—The prophet takes as his text the law which had been so flagrantly broken (Exodus 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 Deuteronomy 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.

Jeremiah 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, (Deuteronomy 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, Jeremiah 34:12. And the words mean no more, as appears by a like form of speech, Deuteronomy 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 Jeremiah 26:12, where every third year is called the year of tithing. So Christ is said to rise again after three days, Mark 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.

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 had released into their services again. Those who think to cheat God by dissembled repentance and partial reformation, put the greatest cheat upon their own souls. This shows that liberty to sin, is really only liberty to have the sorest judgments. It is just with God to disappoint expectations of mercy, when we disappoint the expectations of duty. And when reformation springs only from terror, it is seldom lasting. Solemn vows thus entered into, profane the ordinances of God; and the most forward to bind themselves by appeals to God, are commonly most ready 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.The house of bondmen - The miserable prison in which, after being worked in the fields all day in gangs, the slaves were shut up at night.13. 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! 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, Exodus 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, Genesis 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, Matthew 18:33.

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.

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,