Jeremiah 34:8-11

New International Reader's Version

The People Set Their Slaves Free

⁸ A message from the Lord came to Jeremiah. King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem. He had told them to set their Hebrew slaves free. ⁹ All of them had to do this. That applied to male and female slaves alike. No one was allowed to hold another Hebrew as a slave. ¹⁰ So all the officials and people entered into this covenant. They agreed to set their male and female slaves free. They agreed not to hold them as slaves anymore. Instead, they set them free. ¹¹ But later they changed their minds. They took back the people they had set free. They made them slaves again.