1. Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for these people, I would not feel pity for them! Get them away from me! Tell them to go away!
2. If they ask you, ‘Where should we go?’ tell them the Lord says this:“Those who are destined to die of disease will go to death by disease.Those who are destined to die in war will go to death in war.Those who are destined to die of starvation will go to death by starvation.Those who are destined to go into exile will go into exile.”
3. “I will punish them in four different ways: I will have war kill them. I will have dogs drag off their dead bodies. I will have birds and wild beasts devour and destroy their corpses.
4. I will make all the people in all the kingdoms of the world horrified at what has happened to them because of what Hezekiah’s son Manasseh, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.”
5. The Lord cried out,“Who in the world will have pity on you, Jerusalem?Who will grieve over you?Who will stop long enoughto inquire about how you are doing?
6. I, the Lord, say: ‘You people have deserted me!You keep turning your back on me.’So I have unleashed my power against you and have begun to destroy you.I have grown tired of feeling sorry for you!”
7. The Lord continued,“In every town in the land I will purge them like straw blown away by the wind.I will destroy my people.I will kill off their children.I will do so because they did not change their behavior.
8. Their widows will become in my sight more numerousthan the grains of sand on the seashores.At noontime I will bring a destroyeragainst the mothers of their young men.I will cause anguish and terrorto fall suddenly upon them.
9. The mother who had seven children will grow faint.All the breath will go out of her.Her pride and joy will be taken from her in the prime of their life.It will seem as if the sun had set while it was still day.She will suffer shame and humiliation.I will cause any of them who are still left aliveto be killed in war by the onslaughts of their enemies,”says the Lord.
10. I said,“Oh, mother, how I regret that you ever gave birth to me!I am always starting arguments and quarrels with the people of this land.I have not lent money to anyone and I have not borrowed from anyone.Yet all of these people are treating me with contempt.”
11. The Lord 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.
12. Can you people who are like iron and bronzebreak that iron fist from the north?