1Then Yahweh said to me, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind would not be toward this people. Send them out of my sight and let them go out.
2When they say to you, ‘Where will we go?’ then you are to say to them, ‘This is what Yahweh says: Those who are for death, to death; and those who are for the sword, to the sword; and those who are for the famine, to the famine; and those who are for captivity, to captivity.’
3I will appoint over them four kinds of punishment, says Yahweh: the sword to kill, and the dogs to drag away the bodies, and the birds of the heavens and the animals of the earth to devour and to destroy.
4And I will make them an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, because of what he did in Jerusalem.
5“For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? Or who will grieve for you? Or who will turn aside to ask about your welfare?
6You have rejected me,” says Yahweh, “you keep going backward. So I will stretch out my hand against you and destroy you. I am tired of relenting.
7I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork at the gates of the land; I have bereaved them of children, I have destroyed my people. They did not repent of their ways.
8Their widows will be more numerous before me than the sand of the seas; I will bring on them—against the mother of the young men—a destroyer at noonday. I will cause anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly.
9She who has borne seven sons grows feeble; she has given up the spirit; her sun went down while it was still day; she has been put to shame and humiliated, and the rest of them I will give over to the sword before their enemies,” says Yahweh.
10Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of accusation and a man of contention with the whole earth! I have not lent, nor have men lent to me, yet every one of them curses me.
11Yahweh said, “Jerusalem, I will surely send you away for your own good. I will surely bring the enemy upon you in a time of trouble and distress.
12Can one break iron, iron from the north, or bronze?
13Your wealth and your treasures I will give as plunder without cost, and that because of all your sins throughout all your territory.
14I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know; for in my anger a fire has been kindled. It will burn against you.”
15Yahweh, you know; remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors. Do not take me away from life because of your patience toward sinners; know that for your sake I have suffered reproach.
16Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became a joy to me and the rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Yahweh, God of Armies.
17I did not sit in the assembly of those who make merry, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of your hand, for you have filled me with indignation.
18Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you indeed be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail?
19Therefore this is what Yahweh says: “If you return back to me, then I will take you back. You will stand before me. And if you utter the precious and not the worthless, then you will be my mouth. It is they who must turn back to you, but you must not turn back to them.
20Then I will make you a fortified bronze wall to this people, and though they fight against you, they will not prevail against you, for I am with you to save you and to deliver you,” says Yahweh.
21“I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the hand of the ruthless.”
REV Bible
