Jeremiah 34:8

had made a covenant According to Exodus 21:2 [E] a Hebrew male slave was to be set free after six years" service, and by Deuteronomy 15:12 this was extended to female slaves. The conscience-quickening power of impending danger, in meeting which the slaves, if enfranchised, would be more ready to co-operate with their former masters, seems to have induced Zedekiah, naturally too weak-minded a man to have displayed much vigour in urging any such conduct upon his subjects, to make the agreement with them here spoken of. This view of the motive is to be preferred to Du."s theory that the slaves were turned out of the city during the siege because of the burden of feeding persons whose normal occupation of tillage, etc. was necessarily in abeyance. The narrative on the contrary implies that the action was to the slaves" advantage (see Jeremiah 34:16), and that it was from motives of selfishness that the edict, though sanctioned by the solemnity of an oath, was cancelled on the temporary withdrawal of the besiegers to meet the approaching army of Pharaoh (Jeremiah 34:21).

to proclaim liberty unto them The same phrase is used of the proclamation made in the year of jubilee (Leviticus 25:10). "Unto them," if it be not an insertion, refers to the slaves.