⁸ Jeremiah received the Lord’s word after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim liberty for their slaves: ⁹ everyone was to free their male and female Hebrew slaves and no longer hold a Judean brother or sister in bondage. ¹⁰ So all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed to free their male and female slaves and no longer hold them in bondage; they obeyed the king’s command^[a] and let them go. ¹¹ But afterward they broke their promise, took back the men and women they had freed, and enslaved them again.