Affiliation:
1. Southern Connecticut State University Temple Beth Sholom, 1809 Whitney Ave. Hamden USA
Abstract
Abstract
King Zedekiah of Judah’s covenant to release Hebrew slaves during the siege of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 588/587 and Jeremiah’s idealistic denunciation of the reclaiming of those slaves in Jer 34 has been the subject of interesting scholarly debate. For all the proposed foreign and intra-Biblical parallels, the policy was purely pragmatic and can be understood as a recognizable strategy from ancient texts that recommend procedures during a siege. Therefore when the siege is temporarily lifted, the policy is reversed.
Subject
Religious studies,History