Zedekiah’s Covenant Concerning Slaves

⁸ The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh after king Zedekiah made^[a] a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to proclaim release to them, ⁹ to let go each one his male slave and each one his female slave, the Hebrew and the free Hebrew, so that no one among the Judeans^[b] should enslave his fellow countryman. ¹⁰ And all the officials and all the people obeyed, who had entered into the covenant to let go each one his male slave and each one his female slave, not enslaving them again, and they obeyed and they let them^[c] go. ¹¹ But afterward^[d] they turned back and they brought back the male slaves and the female slaves whom they had let go free, and they subdued them as male slaves and female slaves.