ירמיהו, פרק ל״ד, פסוק ח׳

In a historic moment of national soul-searching, the king of Judah leads a dramatic movement for social justice. The king and the people unite to correct a prolonged wrong, agreeing to release their brothers and sisters who were held in illegal servitude. This event took place in the seventh year of King Zedekiah's reign. Historically, it either occurred before the events detailed in earlier chapters or during a temporary pause in the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem [רש״י, רד״ק, אברבנאל]. The central action is a public declaration of absolute liberty [ביאור שטיינזלץ, מצודת ציון]. The freedom is specifically granted to Hebrew men and women, ensuring that no Jewish person would remain enslaved to another [מצודת דוד, רד״ק, צאינה וראינה].

A major question arises regarding why a new agreement was necessary to free the slaves when this duty is already clearly written in the Torah. The primary approach among commentators is that the nation had sinned by keeping their Hebrew workers far beyond the legal limit of six years. The king's new pact served as an act of repentance, creating a renewed commitment to observe a neglected biblical law [רד״ק, צוארי שלל, אברבנאל]. From a social perspective, the king strategically chose to make this agreement with the common citizens rather than the wealthy elite. The lower classes lived in constant fear that poverty might force them into servitude. Because this new pact guaranteed their lifelong freedom, the commoners embraced it eagerly. In contrast, the rich leaders had no fear of poverty and had no desire to give up their free labor [מלבי״ם].

A deeper legal dispute also operated in the background. According to biblical law, the rules governing Hebrew slaves and the Jubilee year only apply when all the tribes of Israel live together in their land. Because the ten northern tribes had already been exiled, the people of Judah argued that the original law was canceled, leaving them exempt from freeing their workers. However, the prophet Jeremiah had brought back a small group of exiles representing each of the ten lost tribes. While the general public believed this tiny minority was not enough to reactivate the old laws, the legal reality was that the presence of representatives from every tribe made the commandment fully binding once again. To eliminate the people's mistaken legal excuse, King Zedekiah had to establish a new, explicit pact that practically forced them to send their slaves back home [צוארי שלל, חומת אנך].