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16 Now, however, you have renounced that agreement and profaned my name when each of you took back the male and female slaves to whom you had granted freedom and forced them once again to be your slaves.

17 Therefore, thus says the Lord: Inasmuch as you have not obeyed me and refused to grant deliverance to your neighbors and kinsmen, now I will proclaim deliverance for you—deliverance to the sword, to plague, and to famine. I will make you an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 18 As for those who have violated my covenant and refused to observe the terms of the covenant to which they agreed in my presence, I will treat them like the calf which they cut in two and then passed between its pieces.[a]

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 34:18 The calf . . . : the reference is to an ancient rite for ratifying an agreement (see Gen 15:9).

16 But now you have turned around(A) and profaned(B) my name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again.

17 “Therefore this is what the Lord says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom to your own people. So I now proclaim ‘freedom’ for you,(C) declares the Lord—‘freedom’ to fall by the sword, plague(D) and famine.(E) I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth.(F) 18 Those who have violated my covenant(G) and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces.(H)

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