The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 34 God's threats because of slavery

 The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 34

God's threats because of slavery

8 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 liberty to them:

9 That each man should set free his male servant and his female servant, both Hebrew men and Hebrew women, so that no one would enslave them, being Jews, their brothers.

10 And all the princes and all the people who had entered into the covenant listened to the covenant that each man should set free his male servant and his female servant, so that no one would enslave them anymore. So they listened and released them.

11 But afterward they changed their minds and brought back the male and female servants whom they had set free, and subjected them to male and female servants.

12 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying:

13 Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying,

14 “At the end of seven years you shall set free every Hebrew brother who has been sold to you and has served you six years, and you shall set him free from you.” But your fathers did not listen to me or incline their ear to me.

15 And you had today turned back and done what is right in my eyes, proclaiming liberty each to his neighbor; and you had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name.

16 But you have changed and profaned my name, and have returned each to his male servant and each to his female servant, whom you had set free according to your will; and you subjected them to your service, making them your male and female servants.

17 Therefore thus says the Lord: You have not listened to me, to proclaim liberty, each to his brother, and each to his neighbor; for behold, I proclaim liberty to you, says the Lord, to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine; and I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

18 And I will deliver up the men who transgressed my covenant, who did not confirm the words of the covenant, which they made before me with the calf, which they divided in two, passing between the two portions.

19 The princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the portions of the calf;

20 I will deliver them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their lives, and their corpses will be food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.

21 And I will deliver even King Zedekiah, king of Judah, and his princes into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their lives: into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon, which has already withdrawn from you.

22 Behold, I will give the order, says the Lord, and I will cause them to return to this city, and they will fight against it, and they will take it, and they will burn it with fire; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, so that no one will dwell in them.