4. “Yet hear the Lord’s word, Zedekiah, king of Judah. This is what the Lord says concerning you: You will not die by the sword;
5. you will die peacefully. There will be a burning ceremony for you just like the burning ceremonies for your fathers, the former kings who preceded you. ‘Our king is dead! ’ will be the lament for you, for I have spoken this word.” This is the Lord’s declaration.
6. So Jeremiah the prophet related all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem
7. while the king of Babylon’s army was attacking Jerusalem and all of Judah’s remaining cities — against Lachish and Azekah, for they were the only ones left of Judah’s fortified cities.
8. This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah made a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom to them,
9. so each man would free his male and female Hebrew slaves and no one would enslave his Judean brother.
10. All the officials and people who entered into covenant to free their male and female slaves — in order not to enslave them any longer — obeyed and freed them.
11. Afterward, however, they changed their minds and took back their male and female slaves they had freed and forced them to become slaves again.