Zedekiah was age 25 when made King. Zedekiah's mother was Hamutal, thus he was the younger full brother by 9 years to Jehoahaz who was in Egypt and only a half brother to Jehoiakim, and uncle to Jehoiachin who was taken into Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar was more at ease that Zedekiah would not revenge Jehoiakim and he had left the royal house of Jerusalem still in the rightful royal family. Nebuchadnezzar made Zedekiah swear an oath by God of allegiance to Babylon. Zedekiah's evident intentions were to be a good King and follow the ways of his father Josiah. Good intentions do not however make a King, as Zedekiah was weak and would later yield himself to the voice of the princes, priests and elders of Judea. Under Nebuchadnezzar's presence Zedekiah started out on the right foot as he covenanted with Nebuchadnezzar, who was under the influence of Daniel by now, to live God's law. Now Nebuchadnezzar, though not adopting Jehovah himself, knewn through Daniel that the God of the Jews was a true God. Thus Nebuchadnezzar's enfluence upon Zedekiah was for Zedekiah to follow the ways of the Jewish God Jehovah as did Zedekiah's father Josiah.
Therefore Zedekiah announced to the people of Jerusalem a return to the law and covenant of Jehovah as set out in the Law of Moses. And thus Zedekiah, by Temple covenant, had the people swear to up hold and live this covenant. This situation was some what of an oddity, because it was not just a returning to the Law of Moses based upon the desires of the people, or the righteous leadership of the King, but it was a part of the allegiance agreement with King Nebuchadnezzar. Thus the people agreed under the presence of the prevailing presence of the Chaldeans, that they would return to the ways of their God, live the Law of Moses, and be faithful to the Kingdom of Babylon. God had in his own way now joined Jerusalem with the greatest Kingdom on earth, and what God had in store for Jerusalem was be under righteous Jewish rule, not just in Zedekiah, but under Daniel, who if he wasn't already, would become second to King Nebuchadnezzar and actually God's prophet ruler over Israel.
The book of Jeremiah is not in strict chronological order. Any good Bible scholar can tell you that. The chapters are found out of order in many cases. Further, it is apparent that the book of Jeremiah is not a history or at best, in that respect, has gaps of missing details. One of the details missing is the details of Judah's covenants to Nebuchadnezzar and to God at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah. Thus in Chapter 34 when Jeremiah is actually referencing the covenants of the Law of Moses that the people entered into at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah, most all Biblical scholars, including LDS scholars, interpret the events of the Law of Moses stated there as having occurred in the eighth year of Zedekiah's reign after Zedekiah's rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar. And then when Nebuchadnezzar appears on the scene to besiege Jerusalem, the scholars would have us believe that suddenly Zedekiah attempts to turn to the Lord and return to the Law of Moses by releasing the Hebrew slaves. This is just not consistant with the attitude and mind set of the Jewish leadership at this juncture. They are already very set and very committed to their alliance with Egypt against Babylon and they are not of a mind to bow to God's well at this time. They are in a total state of rebellion against God, his law and their agreement with Babylon. This is what is more consistant with what is evidenced by the over all facts of the situation at hand when Nebuchadnezzar is there and the Jews are expectantly awaiting relief from the Egyptians at any moment. Motivations seem to be lacking and out of place for this turn of events as the scholars would portary of a sudden tempory turning to God and the Law of Moses to allow a release of Hebrew slaves in the 8th year of Zedekiah's reign in the mist of his alliance with Egypt. Let me therefore suggest a different scenario.
When Nebuchadnezzar placed Zedekiah on the throne and had him covenant with him and God to run the affairs of the Jewish community according to the Laws of Jehovah, a proven true God in Nebuchadnezzar's mind due to the events surrounding Daniel and his friends, Zedekiah, with good intentions did so. Zedekiah announced to the people that they were to return to the covenants of the Law of Moses and live in harmony with those laws under his reign and Judah's submission to Babylon. One of the specific details of the Law of Moses was that it required Hebrew servants who had been brought into servitude to be release after seven years. Thus a significant part of complying to the Law of Moses was to release Hebrew slaves. This Zedekiah covenanted to do under covenant to God, Nebuchadnezzar, and with his people. The people of Jerusalem even entered into the Temple and covenanted themselves to so live these Laws again by passing through the Temple's sacrificial ceremonies as described in Jeremiah 34. The people, under the presence of the Chaldeans, where agreeable to the return to the Law of Moses. After all it was Jewish law. One provision was that the release of the Jewish servants would be an immediate release as many under the reign of Jehoiakim had not been released and had already served for over seven years. This was agreed to and done. They did release all their servants momentarily. As a side note, this would have meant that Zoram, servant of Laban, Lehi's cousin, would have received his momentary freedom as well. The release as recorded in Jeremiah 34 was short lived and the Jewish reclaimed the servants as soon as they saw the withdrawal of Nebuchadnezzar and his forces.
The timing here become of great interest. By reclaiming their servants upon the withdrawal of Nebuchadnezzar's forces they had not actually violated the Law of Moses, or at least they had arrived at a devious compromise that would allow them to report that they where still in compliance. In the spirit of father Jacob's kinsman Laban, who had Jacob serve two 7 year indentures for Rachel, the Jewish leaders would have persuaded Zedekiah that the seven year term of the Law of Moses should not be one considered as retroactive, but should be only effective as of the date of the Temple covenants entered into at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah. Thus the Jews in 'good' faith of living the Law of Moses could reclaim all their Hebrew servants and make them serve them seven more years from the date of their now renewed Temple covenant date from the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah. Thus where the Hebrew servants reclaimed under a technicality of interpretation of Jewish law for another period of seven years, Zoram included.Lehi would have released his servants, and I would have to believe of Lehi that he had always been faithful to such as the Law of Moses in this respect. It would have been one of the topics of Lehi's warning against the people as he went about prophesying of the eventual destruction of Jerusalem. They would be destroyed because they had recanted on their Temple covenant and their covenant under Zedekiah with Nebuchadnezzar that they would release their Hebrew servants. When the rest of Jerusalem reclaimed their servants, any know servant would be under scrutiny of having to return to their master. If Lehi's servants returned to him, Lehi would have welcomed them back to protect them from the 'Law' but not to live as servants but as joint heirs of his household and lands. It was these servants that Lehi left his lands and wealthy possession with upon his departure. It was from these servant's hands that Nephi and his brothers went and reclaimed the silver, gold and many precious things for to exchange for the Brass Plates. In the first year of Zedekiah's reign much had transpired. The Law of Moses had been entered into by covenant of the people. The people had complied to the Law had released their servants. Nebuchadnezzar had withdrawn from the land. The people under the technicallity of 'Law' under the 'Laban Rule' had reclaimed their servants in violation of the 'Law.' Lehi had prayed to the Lord because he saw the people in violation, and he received God's call to prophesy against them. Which he did for some months until the Jewish leaders had determined to take his life. At that juncture in the latter end of the first year of Zedekiah's reign Lehi was warned of the Lord to depart into the wilderness.
The 'slave issue' was the additional feature that promoted Jerusalem's departure from Babylon seven years later, and their attempted return to their alliance with Egypt. This is a fact that has been lost in history, but the 'slave issue' was indeed one of the 'big issues' of Jerusalem's leaders persuading King Zedekiah to turn from his agreement with Nebuchadnezzar, which agreement Zedekiah was bound to keep as part of his covenant with God (2 Chron. 36:13). And Zedekiah did stiffen his neck and harden his heart being led by the desires of the princes, rulers and priest of Judah from turning unto the Lord God of Israel (2 Chron. 36:13-16). And instead of being in the spirit of wanting to release their servants at the first sight of Nebuchadnezzar in the 8th year of Zedekiah's reign, it was actually one of the issues that the Jews at that time where willing to fight Nechudnezzar over with the aid of Egypt. They were in a spirit of rebellion and where determined to keep their servants evenafter the additional 7 years which they had provided due to their fabricated technicality of the law. Just as Laban, Jacob's cousin, was still determined not to let Jacob leave after 14 years of servitude, so were the Jews of Zedekiah's day determined not to relinquish their servants even after an additional seven years of servitude. And they were willing to stand against Babylon with the aid of the Egyptians to do so.
At the end of the seventh year, the beginning of the eighth year of Zedekiah's reign, it was determined that Jerusalem would rebel against Babylon and become alligned with Egypt. Nebuchadnezzar learned of this and by the end of the eighth year he had come upon Jerusalem and began what would end up being a two phased siege. The first phase being under way before the coming of the Egyptians, and the other coming after the defeat of the Egyptians in the desert. During the first phase siege is when the Lord called upon Jeremiah in Chapter 34 to go and prophesy to the King that they would not be successful in their stand against Nebuchadnezzar and this because they had dealt unjustly with the Law of Moses. Jeremiah specifically reminded them how they had dealt with the Hebrew slave issue of the Law. And Jeremiah prophesied that it would be for this cause, for their failure to live the Law of Moses and their failure to have released the Hebrews according to that Law, that they would fall to Babylon, and that Jerusalem would be destroyed despite the intervention of the Egyptians. At this point Zedekiah was influenced by the Jewish leaders to wait upon the Egyptian promised arrival and not to consider any immediate drastic repentance measures as considering the re-release of the Hebrew servants as he had done years ago at the beginning of his reign.
After Jeremiah's visit to Zedekiah, the Egyptians did begin to make an appearance in the desert. Nebuchadnezzar's intelligence officers reported to Nebuchadnezzar that the Egyptians had been seen advancing in the desert toward Jerusalem Nebuchadnezzar strategically determined it was not wise to await the arrival of the Egyptian in Jerusalem where he would be sandwiched by and confounded with both the Jews and Egyptians together. So he withdrew his soldiers from Jerusalem in order to meet the Egyptians one on one in the desert. When the Jews saw the Babylonian withdrawal, they considered it was in 'fear of the Egyptians' that the Babylonians withdrew. They didn't view it in its proper perspective that it was a sound military decision to deal with one enemy at a time and that Nebuchadnezzar was just postponing his war with Jerusalem while he would take the time to crush the Egyptians in the desert. Thus Zedekiah's leaders persuaded Zedekiah to call in Jeremiah again to see what he would say now that the Babylonians had fled in fear of the Egyptians. And they would mock and taunt him in Chapter 37 that the Babylonians are now gone. Jeremiah told them that they would return. And then Jeremiah thinks to take this opportunity of the pause in the action to visit his home in the land of Benjamin. Here Jeremiah is taken prisoner as charged with defecting to Nebuchadnezzar though he was just going to visit his home.
Lehi is also inspired to have his sons take advantage of this pause and he has his sons return to Jerusalem again to obtain the family of Ishmael. This begins Jeremiah's referred to imprisonment by Nephi (1 Nephi 7:14) in the later end of the 8th year or first part of the 9th year of the reign of Zedekiah. This is when the sons of Lehi return for the family of Ishmael during this laul in the action of the siege of Nebuchadnezzar when the Babylonian troops are off fighting the Egyptians in the Sinai Desert and Jeremiah has now been imprisoned. This would mean that Lehi's encampment in the Valley of Lemuel had been there eight years at that point of time, from the latter end of the first year of Zedekiah's reign to the latter end of the eighth year of Zedekiah's reign.
Of course, Nebuchadnezzar made easy work of destroying the Egyptians and searching them out in the desert and completely dissembling the Egyptian threat. This was done in about or less than a years time as by the end of the 9th year of Zedekiah's reign Nebuchadnezzar was back besieging Jerusalem again and for about a year and a half from the latter end of the ninth year to the first part of the 11th year (ten years and some months) of Zedekiah's reign did the siege continue until Jerusalem fell. All this time was Jeremiah in various states of confinement from Jonathan's prison house, to the keep in the palace, to the muck of the cistern, and back to the palace prison. And at different intervals to audience with the King even at the gate of the temple at one time during this duration of about a year and a half's imprisonment. Upon the fall of Jerusalem the prophet Jeremiah was released by Nebuchadnezzar and allowed to remain and live in Jerusalem as where may of the rural citizens, including those who would have been without the walls of the city on the lands of Lehi.