8The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah cut a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to proclaim liberty to them.9Each man was to send away his male servant and each man his female servant, the Hebrew man and the Hebrew woman, free, so that they would not serve them any longer as a Jew his brother.10All the officials and all the people who had entered the covenant heard to send away each man his male servant and each man his female servant free, so that they would serve them no longer; and they heard and sent them away.11Afterward they turned back and brought back the male servants and the female servants whom they had sent away free, and they subdued them to be male servants and female servants.12Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying:13Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I cut a covenant with your fathers on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of servants, saying:14At the end of seven years each of you shall send away his Hebrew brother who has been sold to you; he shall serve you six years, and then you shall send him away free from you. But your fathers did not listen to me or incline their ear.15You yourselves have turned back today and have done what is right in my eyes by proclaiming liberty, each man to his neighbor, and you cut a covenant before me in the house that is called by my name.16Yet you have turned back and profaned my name; you have brought back each man his male servant and each man his female servant whom you had sent away free according to their soul, and you have subdued them to be your male servants and female servants.17Therefore thus says the LORD: Because you have not listened to me by proclaiming liberty, each man to his brother and each man to his neighbor, behold, I proclaim liberty to you, declares the LORD—to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.18And I will give the men who transgressed my covenant, who did not keep the words of the covenant that they cut before me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts.19The officials of Judah and the officials of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf.20I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life, and their carcasses shall be food for the birds of the heavens and for the beasts of the earth.21And Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials I will give into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life and into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon that is coming up against you.22Behold, I command, declares the LORD, and I will bring them back to this city; they shall fight against it and capture it and burn it with fire, and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.