Burning
This is what the LORD says: I am about to give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down.
Jeremiah 34:2b
In the first part of this chapter, the Lord declares that Jerusalem will be “burned with fire” (see also verse 22; the NIV quoted above drops the “with fire” part as redundant – how else will the city be burned?). The Hebrew verb used here to burn is saraph (שׂרף), meaning “to burn completely”. While that doesn’t change the meaning of this passage, it’s interesting how else it’s used. For instance, in Numbers 21:6 God sends venomous snakes. The word “venomous” is the word seraph, literally “fiery”. Think of the burning sensation when someone is bit. Additionally, in Isaiah 6:2 we find winged seraphim around the throne of the Lord. These are literally “burning ones”! In verse 6, one of them carries a burning coal in his hand to the prophet – easy to carry when you’re already on fire!
There’s a positive fire for King Zedekiah, however. He wouldn’t be killed by the sword and would be mourned at his death with a funeral fire (saraph being used again). A similar fire is mentioned in 2 Chronicles 16:14 where a great fire is made when King Asa died. By contrast, the people didn’t burn a fire for King Jehoram (2 Chronicles 21:19).
(The Israeli Air Force today calls their Apache Longbow Helicopter the saraph – this flying mechanical beast has a fiery bite to it!)
Cutting a Covenant
The narrative continues with the people making a covenant to set their Hebrew slaves free. Then a short time later they change their minds and take them back. The Lord is very displeased with this. First, they were supposed to set them free after six years of labor (Exodus 21:2), which they’d clearly neglected. Making it even worse, they promised they would set them free and then reneged on that promise. The Lord responds, “Those who have violated my covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces” (Jeremiah 34:18). What calf are they referring to here? The passage never mentioned anything about a calf before this.
In Hebrew, one literally “cuts” a covenant (Jeremiah 34:8). This is the normal wording throughout the Bible. Why this verb? The Biblical writers simply assumed that we know how covenants are made. Part of the ceremony is taking an animal (or animals), slaughtering them, and then cutting them in half. Then each party would walk through the blood path between the animal(s). The imagery of the act says, “May I become like this animal if I don’t keep my part of the covenant.”
When God cut a covenant with Abraham, he told him to fetch some animals. Abraham, without further instruction, proceeds by also cutting them in half (Genesis 15:9-10). Why? Because that’s how covenants are made. In Abraham’s case, he didn’t walk the path. Instead, it says, “a smoking firepot with a blazing torch appeared and passed between the pieces” (Genesis 15:17b). In other words, God passes through twice, taking the responsibility and punishment upon himself even if Abraham and his descendants failed to keep the covenant. These two chapters are the only places where this practice is explicitly mentioned, but we must assume that other covenants are cut this way, too.
I can’t help but wonder if the judgment pronounced on Zedekiah and the leaders in Jeremiah 34:21 reverses the promise for a peaceful burial in verse 5. Zedekiah would end up languishing in a Babylonian prison until his death because of their rebellion (Jeremiah 52:8-11).
To Ponder…
- What has been your image of the seraphim around God’s throne? How would you respond if confronted by such a creature?
- Do you keep your promises? Do you believe God keeps his?