7 while the king of Babylon’s army was attacking Jerusalem and all of Judah’s remaining cities — against Lachish and Azekah, for they were the only ones left of Judah’s fortified cities.
8 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah made a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom to them,
9 so each man would free his male and female Hebrew slaves and no one would enslave his Judean brother.
10 All the officials and people who entered into covenant to free their male and female slaves — in order not to enslave them any longer — obeyed and freed them.
11 Afterward, however, they changed their minds and took back their male and female slaves they had freed and forced them to become slaves again.
12 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
13 “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery, saying: