Covenant broken

12Then the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,

13Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: I myself made a covenant with your fathers on the day I brought them out from the land of Egypt, from 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 and has served you six years; you shall send him away free from you. But your fathers did not listen to me or incline their ear.

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

16But you turned back and profaned my name: each of you made his male servant and his female servant return, though you had set them free to go where they wished; then you subjugated them to be your male and female servants.

17Therefore thus says Yahweh: You have not listened to me, to proclaim liberty, each man to his brother and each man to his neighbor. Behold, I am proclaiming liberty for you, declares Yahweh—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 hand over the men who transgressed my covenant, who did not uphold the words of the covenant that they made before me, the calf that they cut in two and passed between its pieces.

19the officials of Judah and the officials of Jerusalem, the court officials and the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the pieces of the calf—