^2 (A)“Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

⁶ And the Lord said to me, ^(A)“Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ^(B)Hear the words of this covenant and do them.

⁵ Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be ^(A)my treasured possession among all peoples, for ^(B)all the earth is mine;

¹³ “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I myself made a covenant with your fathers when ^(A)I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying, ^14 (B)‘At the end of seven years each of you must set free the fellow Hebrew who has been sold to you and has served you six years; ^(C)you must set him free from your service.’ But ^(D)your fathers did not listen to me or incline their ears to me. ¹⁵ You recently repented and did what was right in my eyes ^(E)by proclaiming liberty, each to his neighbor, and ^(F)you made a covenant before me in the ^(G)house that is called by my name, ¹⁶ but then you turned around ^(H)and profaned my name when each of you took back his male and female slaves, ^(I)whom you had set free according to their desire, and you brought them into subjection to be your slaves.

³¹ And the king ^(A)stood in his place ^(B)and made a covenant before the Lord, to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book.

¹⁰ Now ^(A)it is in my heart ^(B)to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, in order that his fierce anger may turn away from us.

Jehoiada's Reforms

¹⁶ And Jehoiada made a covenant between himself and all the people and the king that they should be the Lord's people.

² And the king went up to the house of the Lord, and with him all the men of Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the priests and the prophets, all the people, both small and great. And ^(A)he read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant ^(B)that had been found in the house of the Lord. ³ And the king stood ^(C)by the pillar and ^(D)made a covenant before the Lord, ^(E)to walk after the Lord and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant.

¹⁷ And Jehoiada ^(A)made a covenant between the Lord and the king and people, that they should be the Lord's people, and also ^(B)between the king and the people.