John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 34:16

"but ye turned and profaned my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom ye had let go free at their pleasure, to return; and ye brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and for handmaids." — Jeremiah 34:16 (ASV)

The Prophet remonstrates here with the Jews, as we said in the last Lecture, regarding their perjury; for they had solemnly made a covenant in the Temple of God to set free their servants according to what the law prescribed.

There would have been no need for such a ceremony if they had observed what they learned from the Law; but neither they nor their fathers observed the equity prescribed to them by God. Therefore, there was a necessity for a new promise, sanctioned by sacrifice.

The Prophet commended them for obeying God’s command. But he now shows that they were the more inexcusable because they soon afterward returned to their old ways. But ye turned, he says, meaning they soon regretted the obedience they had promised to render to God. Their promptness was worthy of praise when they promised that they would willingly obey; but by doing this in bad faith, they treated God with mockery.

He adds that God’s name was polluted. From this we learn that whenever we misuse God’s name, it is a kind of sacrilege, for nothing is deemed more precious by God than truth. Indeed, as he himself is truth, and is so called (John 14:6), there is nothing more contrary to his nature than falsehood.

It is then an intolerable profanation of God’s name whenever it is falsely invoked; and thus perjury is allied with sacrilege. God’s name is indeed polluted in other ways than by perjury: for example, when God’s name is taken in vain rashly, thoughtlessly, and without reverence. But the most heinous pollution of it is when the truth is changed into a lie. This passage then contains a useful doctrine, which teaches us to act faithfully, especially when God’s name is involved.

He afterward adds, Ye have remanded every one his servant and every one his maid, whom ye have set free, etc. The crime was doubled by this circumstance: that they had emancipated their servants and then remanded them. For if they had not dissembled, their obstinacy could by no means have been tolerated; but their rebellion became still more base when they had pretended to obey God, and it soon became known that they had perfidiously promised liberty to their servants.

He says that they were set free to their own soul, that is, to their own will. For we call men free when it is in their power to choose what they please, for when they are under the power of another, they have no will, no choice of their own.

And the indignity is increased when servants who have been made free are afterward deprived of so great a privilege; for nothing is more desirable than liberty, as even heathens have declared. He adds that this was done by force: Ye have made them subject. The verb כבש cabesh, means to subject and to oppress.

The Prophet then shows that those who had been made free were not willing to return to their miserable condition and that they were not constrained to submit to the yoke in any other way than by tyranny. It therefore appears that their masters not only employed deceit but also cruel and tyrannical violence, so that to perjury they added inhumanity, which further increased their crime.