Reference

Jeremiah 34:17

Therefore thus saith the Lord; Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbour: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.
15

And ye were now turned, and had done right in my sight, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbour; and ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name:

16

But ye turned and polluted my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom ye had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and for handmaids.

17

Therefore thus saith the Lord; Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbour: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.

18

And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, when they cut the calf in twain, and passed between the parts thereof,

19

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;

Why This Verse Was Tagged

Literal Fulfillment
Keyword Match
90% relevance

This verse contains specific terms directly associated with this theme.

Prophecy Fulfilled Literally
Semantic Discovery
80% relevance

This verse was identified through meaning similarity — its content is mathematically close to known verses in this theme, even without sharing the same vocabulary.

Counter-Arguments

The strongest case that this verse does not belong in this theme.

Literal Fulfillment

While the verse describes concrete events, the "liberty" proclaimed by the Lord is clearly ironic and metaphorical, not a literal freedom but rather freedom *to* destruction, which complicates a purely literal fulfillment interpretation.

Prophecy Fulfilled Literally

The "liberty" proclaimed by God in this verse is clearly ironic and punitive, a direct consequence of the people's failure to grant true liberty to their fellow Israelites. While the subsequent judgment (sword, pestilence, famine, removal) is indeed a concrete, physical, and geographical fulfillment of a prophecy, the *nature* of the "liberty" itself is metaphorical and serves as a rhetorical device to highlight their disobedience. Therefore, applying "Prophecy Fulfilled Literally" to the *entir

Prophetic Methods of Communication

The verse describes God's direct communication to the people through a prophet, but it does not detail the method by which God communicated to the prophet himself. The focus is on the message delivered, not the means of its reception by Jeremiah.