Jeremiah Bible Study - Jeremiah Chapter 34 -The Covenant Agreement | Genesis Bible Study
Jeremiah 34 — A Broken Covenant
Jeremiah 34 takes place during one of Judah's darkest moments, as Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and his armies were fighting against Jerusalem. The prophet Jeremiah delivers God's word to King Zedekiah, warning that Jerusalem would be given into the hands of Babylon and that Zedekiah would not escape.
The chapter then turns to a serious covenant issue among the people of Judah. They had agreed to release their Hebrew servants and restore their liberty, in accordance with God's command. At first they obeyed, but afterward they changed their minds and forced the people they had freed back into servitude.
God regarded this reversal as more than mistreatment of people—it was a violation of covenant and a profaning of His name. They had publicly promised obedience before God and then deliberately reversed their actions.
Jeremiah 34 therefore teaches a sobering lesson about covenant faithfulness, justice, obedience, and keeping one's word before God. It shows that outward religious actions mean little when they are followed by deliberate disobedience.
Central Thought
God takes seriously both how His people treat others and the promises they make in His name. Covenant obedience must be demonstrated by our actions, not merely declared with our lips.
The princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf.”
These verses contain one of Scripture's clearest explanations of an ancient covenant-cutting ceremony. Jeremiah is not merely describing an animal sacrifice. The divided calf represented the solemn consequences attached to a covenant oath.
This passage also sheds important light on Genesis 15:9–18, where Abraham divided sacrificial animals and God's manifested presence passed between the pieces.
“They have transgressed My covenant”
The central issue is covenant violation.
The Hebrew word translated covenant is:
בְּרִית — berit
It means covenant, binding agreement, solemn relationship established by commitment.
In the Geʽez/Ethiopic biblical world, the corresponding covenant concept is commonly expressed by:
ኪዳን — kidān
This is more than an ordinary promise.
It conveys a solemn covenantal bond or pledge.
So Jeremiah 34 is not describing people who merely changed their minds.
They violated a covenant made before God.
That distinction explains the severity of God's response.
What covenant had they broken?
The immediate context is Jeremiah 34:8–17.
King Zedekiah and the people had entered into a covenant to release their Hebrew servants.
Jeremiah 34:9 explains that Hebrew men and women were to be set free so that:
“none should serve himself of them, to wit, of a Jew his brother.”
Initially, they obeyed.
Jeremiah 34:10 says:
“they obeyed, and let them go.”
But then something happened.
Verse 11 says:
“But afterward they turned…”
They took the people they had released and forced them back into servitude.
That is the immediate sin behind verses 18–19.
Their sin was deeper than mistreating people
Certainly, oppression was sinful.
But Jeremiah identifies another dimension:
They had made a covenant before God and then deliberately violated it.
God says:
“which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me.”
Notice:
“BEFORE ME.”
God was the witness.
They may have made promises to one another, but the covenant ceremony took place before Yahweh.
Therefore, breaking their word to their brethren also became an offense against God.
This is a major biblical principle:
Covenant carries accountability before God.
“When they cut the calf in twain”
Now we reach the unusual ceremony.
They:
“cut the calf in twain.”
The animal was divided into two portions.
The Hebrew Bible uses language behind the expression “make a covenant” that literally reflects the idea of:
“cutting a covenant.”
Hebrew:
כָּרַת בְּרִית — karat berit
Literally:
“to cut a covenant.”
This language makes passages such as Genesis 15 and Jeremiah 34 particularly important.
A covenant could be solemnized through sacrifice.
Why was the animal divided?
The divided animal served as a visible covenant sign.
The parties then:
“passed between the parts thereof.”
This was not simply ceremonial decoration.
The act embodied an oath.
In effect, the covenant maker was placing himself under the consequences of violating the covenant.
The symbolic idea was approximately:
“May what happened to this animal happen to me if I violate this covenant.”
Jeremiah 34 itself confirms that interpretation.
God says in verse 20 that He will give the covenant breakers:
“into the hand of their enemies.”
And verse 18 uses the divided calf as the framework for pronouncing judgment upon those who broke the covenant.
The ceremony therefore contained both:
promise
and
judgment for covenant violation.
“Passed between the parts thereof”
This phrase is extremely important:
“passed between the parts.”
The people physically walked through the space created by the divided sacrifice.
Picture the scene:
one portion of the calf
covenant pathway
other portion of the calf
They walked between them.
Their bodies were acting out their oath.
It was as though they were saying:
“We bind ourselves to what we have promised before God.”
The covenant was therefore not casual speech.
It was enacted commitment.
The Geʽez/Ethiopian covenant perspective
Within the broader Geʽez/Ethiopian biblical understanding, kidān carries a strong sense of sacred relationship and pledged faithfulness.
Jeremiah 34 illustrates something fundamental about covenant:
Covenant requires faithfulness.
A covenant is not merely spoken.
It must be kept.
This explains God's accusation:
“which have not performed the words of the covenant.”
They spoke covenant words.
They performed a covenant ceremony.
They walked between the sacrifice.
But afterward their actions contradicted their covenant.
God therefore judged their unfaithfulness, not merely their ceremony.
This takes us directly back to Genesis 15
This is where Jeremiah 34 becomes especially important for understanding Abraham.
Genesis 15:10 says that Abraham took the animals:
“and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another.”
That sounds remarkably similar to Jeremiah 34.
Jeremiah tells us explicitly what people did with divided covenant animals:
“passed between the parts.”
Now return to Genesis 15.
Something extraordinary happens.
Abraham does not pass between the pieces
Genesis 15:17 says:
“behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed between those pieces.”
Then verse 18 immediately says:
“In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram.”
That is enormously significant.
Jeremiah 34 helps us understand what Genesis 15 is showing.
In Jeremiah:
Human covenant makers pass between the pieces.
But in Genesis 15:
God's manifested presence passes between the pieces.
Abraham had prepared the sacrifice.
But God takes the covenant oath upon Himself.
Why Genesis 15 is so powerful
Genesis 15 does not describe Abraham and God walking together between the animals.
God alone is represented as passing through.
This emphasizes the divine initiative behind the Abrahamic promise.
God had promised Abraham:
seed,
land,
descendants,
and a covenant future.
Then God symbolically passes through the covenant pieces.
Therefore the emphasis becomes:
“I will fulfill what I have promised.”
Abraham's confidence ultimately rests upon God's faithfulness.
Jeremiah 34 shows the opposite side
Put the two passages beside one another.
Genesis 15
Animals divided.
↓
God passes between them.
↓
God establishes covenant.
↓
Divine faithfulness emphasized.
Jeremiah 34
Calf divided.
↓
People pass between the pieces.
↓
People make covenant.
↓
People break covenant.
↓
Human unfaithfulness exposed.
This contrast is remarkable.
Genesis 15 shows the faithfulness of the covenant-making God.
Jeremiah 34 exposes the unfaithfulness of covenant-breaking humanity.
“The princes of Judah”
Jeremiah specifically identifies the covenant breakers.
First:
“the princes of Judah.”
These were leaders.
Covenant responsibility therefore extended to those holding political and social authority.
Their position did not exempt them from God's judgment.
In fact, leadership increased their responsibility.
“The princes of Jerusalem”
Jerusalem was the covenant nation's central city.
The Temple stood there.
Priests ministered there.
Sacrifices were offered there.
Yet proximity to sacred things did not guarantee covenant faithfulness.
This is an important lesson from Jeremiah.
Religious surroundings cannot substitute for obedience.
A person may be near:
the Temple,
the priesthood,
the sacrifices,
the Scriptures,
and still violate God's Word.
“The eunuchs”
The KJV includes:
“the eunuchs.”
Depending upon context, the underlying term may refer to eunuchs or royal/court officials.
Their inclusion shows that the covenant involved members of the governmental establishment.
God systematically names the social groups responsible.
“The priests”
This is particularly serious.
The priests were responsible for teaching and maintaining covenant worship.
Yet Jeremiah includes them among those who:
“passed between the parts of the calf.”
Their priestly position did not excuse covenant violation.
This reinforces one of Jeremiah's major themes:
Religious office does not replace obedience.
God judges covenant unfaithfulness even among religious leaders.
“And all the people of the land”
The responsibility spreads outward:
princes
→ officials
→ priests
→ people.
This was not merely the failure of one corrupt leader.
The community had participated.
The text therefore presents a broad covenant failure.
There is an Exodus connection
There is another layer that should not be missed.
Why was God so concerned that Hebrew servants be released?
Because Israel itself had once been enslaved.
God reminds them in Jeremiah 34:13:
“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.”
God had liberated Israel.
Now Israelites were oppressing their own brethren.
The contradiction was enormous.
God had released them from bondage.
Yet they refused lasting freedom to others.
God's judgment contains a striking wordplay
Jeremiah 34:17 is powerful.
Because they refused to proclaim liberty to their brethren, God says:
“Behold, I proclaim a liberty for you…to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine.”
They wanted freedom from their covenant obligations.
God essentially says:
“Then I release you—to judgment.”
This is deliberate irony.
They proclaimed freedom and then withdrew it from their brethren.
God therefore proclaims another kind of “freedom” over them:
sword,
pestilence,
famine.
Covenant violation has consequences.
Jeremiah 31 and Jeremiah 34 belong together theologically
This becomes especially profound considering the passage you asked about immediately before this one.
Jeremiah 31
God says:
“I will make a new covenant.”
Jeremiah 34
Human beings make covenant—
and break it.
That contrast helps us understand why Jeremiah's promise of a New Covenant is so important.
Human beings need more than another outward promise.
They need inward transformation.
Jeremiah 31:33 says:
“I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.”
Jeremiah 34 demonstrates the problem.
They could participate in the outward ceremony while their hearts later turned away.
From the divided calf to the New Covenant
There is a beautiful biblical progression:
GENESIS 15
Divided animals
God passes between the pieces.
Covenant promise
↓
EXODUS 24
Blood of the covenant
Israel enters covenant at Sinai.
↓
JEREMIAH 34
Divided calf
People pass between the pieces.
Covenant broken
↓
JEREMIAH 31
God promises:
“I will make a new covenant.”
↓
MATTHEW 26:28
Jesus declares:
“This is my blood of the new testament…”
The covenant story moves from promise, through human failure, toward God's redemptive work in Christ.
An important distinction
We should be careful not to claim that every divided sacrifice in Scripture had precisely the same ritual meaning without considering its context.
But Jeremiah 34 gives us unusually explicit evidence:
animal divided
people passing between the pieces
covenant oath
judgment for breaking that covenant.
That makes Jeremiah 34 one of the strongest biblical passages for interpreting the covenant ceremony of Genesis 15.
The deeper spiritual lesson
Jeremiah 34:18–19 exposes the difference between:
covenant ceremony
and
covenant faithfulness.
The people performed the ceremony correctly.
They cut the calf.
They walked between the pieces.
They spoke the covenant.
But afterward:
they broke their word.
This teaches a powerful principle:
God is not impressed merely because covenant language comes from our mouths.
He looks for covenant faithfulness expressed through obedience.
The people said one thing before God and later practiced another.
That is exactly what Jeremiah condemns.
The Geʽez concept of kidān brings this into focus
ኪዳን — kidān — covenant
can be understood here through four movements:
Kidān is established.
↓
The oath is witnessed before God.
↓
Faithfulness is required.
↓
Violation brings covenant accountability.
This is why Jeremiah's language is so severe.
The people were not ignorant of what they had promised.
They literally walked through the covenant sign.
Their feet testified to what their mouths had promised.
Yet their later behavior denied their covenant.
The great contrast
GENESIS 15 — GOD PASSES BETWEEN THE PIECES
God makes the covenant.
God gives the promise.
God binds Himself to His word.
God remains faithful.
JEREMIAH 34 — MEN PASS BETWEEN THE PIECES
Men make the covenant.
Men give their word.
Men bind themselves by oath.
Men break the covenant.
And that contrast prepares us to appreciate the promise:
“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant…”
— Jeremiah 31:31
Central revelation
Jeremiah 34:18–19 is not primarily about the killing of a calf. The divided calf is the visible sign of the seriousness of covenant.
The people walked between its pieces and thereby entered a solemn covenant before God. When they later violated their promise and re-enslaved those they had released, God treated their actions as covenant treachery.
And when we place Jeremiah 34 beside Genesis 15, something remarkable becomes visible:
In Jeremiah 34, humans walk between the divided sacrifice and fail to keep their covenant.
In Genesis 15, God's manifested presence passes between the divided sacrifice—and God remains faithful to His promise.
That contrast brings us to one of Scripture's great covenant truths:
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