8. The word of the Lord came to me in the morning:
9. “Son of man, has not the house of Israel, that rebellious house, said to you, ‘What are you doing?’
10. Say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: The prince will raise this burden in Jerusalem, and all the house of Israel within it.’
11. Say, ‘I am an object lesson for you. Just as I have done, it will be done to them; they will go into exile and captivity.’
12. “The prince who is among them will raise his belongings onto his shoulder in darkness, and will go out. He will dig a hole in the wall to leave through. He will cover his face so that he cannot see the land with his eyes.
13. But I will throw my net over him, and he will be caught in my snare. I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans (but he will not see it), and there he will die.
14. All his retinue – his attendants and his troops – I will scatter to every wind; I will unleash a sword behind them.
15. “Then they will know that I am the Lord when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them among foreign countries.
16. But I will let a small number of them survive the sword, famine, and pestilence, so that they can confess all their abominable practices to the nations where they go. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”
17. The word of the Lord came to me:
18. “Son of man, eat your bread with trembling, and drink your water with anxious shaking.
19. Then say to the people of the land, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says about the inhabitants of Jerusalem and of the land of Israel: They will eat their bread with anxiety and drink their water in fright, for their land will be stripped bare of all it contains because of the violence of all who live in it.