When your people ¹  come to their senses ²  in the land where they are held prisoner, they will repent and beg for your mercy in the land of their imprisonment, admitting, ‘We have sinned and gone astray ³ , we have done evil!’

My judgment will carry off all your leaders like a storm wind! ¹  Your allies will go into captivity. Then you will certainly ²  be disgraced and put to shame because of all the wickedness you have done.

Even when their enemies drive them into captivity, ¹  from there ²  I will command the sword to kill them. I will not let them out of my sight; they will experience disaster, not prosperity.” ³ 

Yet she went into captivity as an exile; ¹  even her infants were smashed to pieces ²  at the head of every street. They cast lots ³  for her nobility; ⁴  all her dignitaries were bound with chains.

The exiles who were returning from the captivity offered burnt offerings to the God of Israel – twelve bulls for all Israel, ninety-six rams, seventy-seven male lambs, along with twelve male goats as a sin offering. All this was a burnt offering to the Lord.

Hear, O our God, for we are despised! Return their reproach on their own head! Reduce them to plunder in a land of exile!

You, Pashhur, and all your household ¹  will go into exile in Babylon. You will die there and you will be buried there. The same thing will happen to all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.’” ² 

צ (Tsade) The Lord is right to judge me! ¹  Yes, I rebelled against his commands. ²  Please listen, all you nations, ³  and look at my suffering! My young women and men have gone into exile.

These who are wise among the people will teach the masses. ¹  However, they will fall ²  by the sword and by the flame, ³  and they will be imprisoned and plundered for some time. ⁴ 

Look, the Lord will throw you far away, ¹  you mere man! ²  He will wrap you up tightly. ³ 

From the days of our fathers until this very day our guilt has been great. Because of our iniquities we, along with our kings and ¹  priests, have been delivered over by the local kings ²  to sword, captivity, plunder, and embarrassment – right up to the present time.

‘So pay attention to what I, the Lord, have said, ¹  all you exiles whom I have sent to Babylon from Jerusalem.’

Yet in days to come I will reverse Ammon’s ill fortune.” ¹  says the Lord. ² 

So I told the exiles everything ¹  the Lord had shown me.

Hanani, who was one of my relatives, ¹  along with some of the men from Judah, came to me, ²  and I asked them about the Jews who had escaped and had survived the exile, and about Jerusalem. ³ 

When they return to you with all their heart and being ¹  in the land where they are held prisoner and direct their prayers toward the land you gave to their ancestors, your chosen city, and the temple I built for your honor, ² 

Because God fought for them, ¹  they killed many of the enemy. ²  They dispossessed the Hagrites and lived in their land until the exile. ³ 

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

The people ¹  of Israel – the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the exiles ²  – observed the dedication of this temple of God with joy.

For the music director; written by the Korahites, a psalm. O Lord, you showed favor to your land; you restored the well-being of Jacob. ²