¹⁶ But you have changed your minds^(A) and profaned my name.^(B) Each has taken back his male and female slaves who had been set free to go wherever they wanted, and you have again forced them to be your slaves.

¹⁷ “Therefore, this is what the Lord says: You have not obeyed me by proclaiming freedom, each for his fellow Hebrew and for his neighbor.^(C) I hereby proclaim freedom for you^(D)—this is the Lord’s declaration—to the sword, to plague, and to famine! I will make you a horror to all the earth’s kingdoms.^{(E) 18} As for those who disobeyed my covenant,^(F) not keeping the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will treat them like the calf they cut in two in order to pass between its pieces.^(G)