4. Yet hear the word of the Lord, O Zedekiah king of Judah! Thus says the Lord concerning you: You will not die by the sword.
5. But you will die in peace; and as spices were burned for your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so they burn spices for you. And they will lament for you, saying, “Alas, lord!” For I have pronounced the word, says the Lord.
6. Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem,
7. when the king of Babylon’s army fought against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish and Azekah, for these fortified cities remained of the cities of Judah.
8. This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord after the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to proclaim liberty to them:
9. that every man should let his male slave and every man his female slave, being a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, go free so that no one should keep them, a Jew his brother, in bondage.
10. Now when all the officials and all the people who had entered into the covenant heard that everyone should let his male slave and everyone his female slave go free, so that no one should keep them any more in bondage, then they obeyed and let them go.
11. But afterward they turned around and caused the male slaves and the female slaves whom they had set free to return, and brought them into subjection for male slaves and female slaves.
12. Therefore 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 in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying: