9. Everyone must free their Hebrew slaves, male and female, so that no one should hold another Judahite in servitude.
10. All the princes and the people who entered this covenant agreed to set free their slaves, their male and female servants, so that they should no longer be in servitude. But even though they agreed and freed them,
11. afterward they took back their male and female servants whom they had set free and again forced them into servitude.
12. Then this word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:
13. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I myself made a covenant with your ancestors the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery:
14. Every seventh year each of you must set free all Hebrews who have sold themselves to you; six years they shall serve you, but then you shall let them go free. Your ancestors, however, did not listen to me or obey me.
15. As for you, today you repented and did what is right in my eyes by proclaiming freedom for your neighbor and making a covenant before me in the house which bears my name.
16. But then you again profaned my name by taking back your male and female slaves whom you had just set free for life; you forced them to become your slaves again.