“I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth.”
My Notes
What Does Jeremiah 34:20 Mean?
"I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth." The recurring Deuteronomic curse-formula appears again: unburied bodies left for birds and beasts. This time it's directed at the princes and people who broke the covenant of slave release (34:8-11) — they freed their slaves during the siege and then re-enslaved them when the Babylonian pressure temporarily lifted. The judgment targets the specific sin of broken promises to vulnerable people.
The re-enslavement after temporary release was the ultimate betrayal: the slaves tasted freedom and had it snatched back. God's response is proportional: you broke your covenant with the vulnerable. I'll break my covenant protection of you.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Where have you given freedom (forgiveness, grace, permission) and then taken it back?
- 2.What does God's precise response to this specific sin teach about how seriously he takes broken promises to the vulnerable?
- 3.How does the re-enslavement story mirror modern patterns of temporary generosity that gets revoked when pressure eases?
- 4.What does it mean that God proclaims 'liberty to the sword' for those who mock liberty?
Devotional
They freed the slaves. Then they took them back. And God says: for that specific betrayal — dead bodies for birds.
The backstory is devastating. Zedekiah made a covenant to free all Hebrew slaves — as the law required every seventh year. During the siege, the people complied: they released their slaves. And then Babylon temporarily withdrew. The pressure lifted. And the moment the external threat eased, the owners re-enslaved the people they'd just freed.
The slaves tasted freedom. Then they were dragged back into bondage. By the people who had sworn before God to release them. The covenant was made in the temple. The breaking happened in the streets. And the vulnerable people who briefly experienced liberation were shoved back into chains.
God's response is the most precisely proportional judgment in Jeremiah: you gave liberty and then took it back? I'll give you liberty too — liberty to die. "I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the LORD, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine" (v. 17). You mocked the concept of freedom by giving and revoking it? I'll give you the freedom of unprotected exposure to everything that was being held back.
The dead bodies for birds is the Deuteronomic curse fulfilled — but the trigger is the specific sin of covenant-breaking toward the most vulnerable. God doesn't cite general wickedness. He cites this: you freed the slaves and then re-enslaved them. That's what's producing the birds over the corpses.
The God who freed Israel from slavery has zero tolerance for people who enslave others after promising freedom. The sin isn't just slave-holding. It's the cruelty of giving freedom and then ripping it away. Tasting and then starving. Promising and then betraying.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
I will even give them into the hand of their enemies,.... The Chaldeans, who were the enemies of the Jews, that were…
It is usual with commentators to say that, the laws dealing with the emancipation of the Hebrew slaves, as also that of…
We have here another prophecy upon a particular occasion, the history of which we must take notice of, as necessary to…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture