18. The Lord told me, “Tell the king and the queen mother,‘Surrender your thrones,for your glorious crownswill be removed from your heads.
19. The gates of the towns in southern Judah will be shut tight.No one will be able to go in or out of them.All Judah will be carried off into exile.They will be completely carried off into exile.’”
20. Then I said, “Look up, Jerusalem, and seethe enemy that is coming from the north.Where now is the flock of people that were entrusted to your care?Where now are the ‘sheep’ that you take such pride in?
21. What will you say when the Lord appoints as rulers over you those alliesthat you, yourself, had actually prepared as such?Then anguish and agony will grip youlike that of a woman giving birth to a baby.
22. You will probably ask yourself,‘Why have these things happened to me?Why have I been treated like a disgraced adulteresswhose skirt has been torn off and her limbs exposed?’It is because you have sinned so much.
23. But there is little hope for you ever doing good, you who are so accustomed to doing evil.Can an Ethiopian change the color of his skin?Can a leopard remove its spots?