5. So come on, let’s go ahead and attack it by nightand destroy all its fortified buildings.’
6. All of this is because the Lord who rules over all has said:‘Cut down the trees around Jerusalemand build up a siege ramp against its walls.This is the city which is to be punished.Nothing but oppression happens in it.
7. As a well continually pours out fresh waterso it continually pours out wicked deeds.Sounds of violence and destruction echo throughout it.All I see are sick and wounded people.’
8. So take warning, Jerusalem,or I will abandon you in disgustand make you desolate,a place where no one can live.”
9. This is what the Lord who rules over all said to me:“Those who remain in Israel will be like the grapes thoroughly gleaned from a vine.So go over them again, as though you were a grape harvesterpassing your hand over the branches one last time.”
10. I answered, “Who would listenif I spoke to them and warned them?Their ears are so closedthat they cannot hear!Indeed, what the Lord says is offensive to them.They do not like it at all.
11. I am as full of anger as you are, Lord,I am tired of trying to hold it in.”The Lord answered, “Vent it, then, on the children who play in the streetand on the young men who are gathered together.Husbands and wives are to be included,as well as the old and those who are advanced in years.
12. Their houses will be turned over to othersas will their fields and their wives.For I will unleash my poweragainst those who live in this land,”says the Lord.
13. “That is because, from the least important to the most important of them,all of them are greedy for dishonest gain.Prophets and priests alike,all of them practice deceit.
14. They offer only superficial help for the harm my people have suffered.They say, ‘Everything will be all right!’But everything is not all right!