When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin learned that the former exiles ¹  were building a temple for the Lord God of Israel,

They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Azariah, Raamiah, Nahamani, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispereth, Bigvai, Nehum, and Baanah. The number of Israelite men ¹  was as follows:

And I will drive you out of my sight just like I drove out your relatives, the people of Israel.’” ¹ 

Your wise men will be put to shame. They will be dumbfounded and be brought to judgment. ¹  Since they have rejected the word of the Lord, what wisdom do they really have?

I will force you and your mother who gave you birth into exile. You will be exiled to ¹  a country where neither of you were born, and you will both die there.

He sent it after King Jeconiah, the queen mother, the palace officials, ¹  the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metal workers had been exiled from Jerusalem. ² 

For they have not paid attention to what I said to them through my servants the prophets whom I sent to them over and over again,’ ¹  says the Lord. ²  ‘And you exiles ³  have not paid any attention to them either,’ says the Lord. ⁴ 

The Lord says, “The people of Israel who survived death at the hands of the enemy ¹  will find favor in the wilderness as they journey to find rest for themselves.

You who have escaped the sword, ¹  go, do not delay. ²  Remember the Lord in a faraway land. Think about Jerusalem. ³ 

What follows is a record of what happened to Jerusalem and Judah because of the Lord’s anger when he drove them out of his sight. ¹  Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

In the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first of the month, ¹  the word of the Lord came to me:

In the twelfth year, on the fifteenth day of the month, ¹  the word of the Lord came to me:

Each of you will go straight through the gaps in the walls; ¹  you will be thrown out ²  toward Harmon.” ³  The Lord is speaking!

“You there! ¹  Flee from the northland!” says the Lord, “for like the four winds of heaven ²  I have scattered you,” says the Lord.

He stayed there until Herod ¹  died. In this way what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet was fulfilled: “I called my Son out of Egypt.” ² 

and not for the Jewish nation ¹  only, ²  but to gather together ³  into one the children of God who are scattered.) ⁴ 

For the Lord says, ‘I will make both you and your friends terrified of what will happen to you. ¹  You will see all of them die by the swords of their enemies. ²  I will hand all the people of Judah over to the king of Babylon. He will carry some of them away into exile in Babylon and he will kill others of them with the sword.

“Son of man, your brothers, ¹  your relatives, ²  and the whole house of Israel, all of them are those to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem ³  have said, ‘They have gone ⁴  far away from the Lord; to us this land has been given as a possession.’

I will eliminate from among you the rebels and those who revolt ¹  against me. I will bring them out from the land where they have been residing, but they will not come to the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

“‘Then the land will make up for ¹  its Sabbaths all the days it lies desolate while you are in the land of your enemies; then the land will rest and make up its Sabbaths.