16. I have not run away from being your shepherd,nor have I desired the day of sickness. You know what came out of my lips;it was before your face.
17. Be not a terror to me; you are my refuge in the day of disaster.
18. Let those be put to shame who persecute me,but let me not be put to shame; let them be dismayed,but let me not be dismayed; bring upon them the day of disaster;destroy them with double destruction!
19. Thus said the Lord to me: “Go and stand in the People’s Gate, by which the kings of Judah enter and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem,
20. and say: ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates.
21. Thus says the Lord: Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem.
22. And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers.
23. Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck, that they might not hear and receive instruction.
24. “‘But if you listen to me, declares the Lord, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it,
25. then there shall enter by the gates of this city kings and princes who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city shall be inhabited forever.