But later ¹  they had changed their minds. They had taken back their male and female slaves that they had freed and forced them to be slaves again. ² 

So the Lord God of Israel who rules over all says, ‘Jonadab son of Rechab will never lack a male descendant to serve me.’” ¹ 

“Find Jeremiah ¹  and look out for him. ²  Do not do anything to harm him, ³  but do with him whatever he tells you.”

“Because of this, the Lord God of Israel who rules over all says, ‘I am determined to bring disaster on you, ¹  even to the point of destroying all the Judeans here. ² 

I will hand them over to Nebuchadnezzar and his troops, who want to kill them. But later on, people will live in Egypt again as they did in former times. I, the Lord, affirm it!” ¹ 

But the time is coming when I will send men against Moab who will empty it out. They will empty the towns of their people, then will lay those towns in ruins. ¹  I, the Lord, affirm it! ² 

So I will weep with sorrow for Moab. I will cry out in sadness for all of Moab. I will moan ¹  for the people of Kir Heres.

For her young men will fall in her city squares. All her soldiers will be destroyed at that time,” says the Lord who rules over all. ¹ 

Therefore desert creatures and jackals will live there. Ostriches ¹  will dwell in it too. ²  But no people will ever live there again. No one will dwell there for all time to come. ³ 

Babylonia had been a gold cup in the Lord’s hand. She had made the whole world drunk. The nations had drunk from the wine of her wrath. ¹  So they have all gone mad. ² 

Therefore the Lord says, “I will stand up for your cause. I will pay the Babylonians back for what they have done to you. ¹  I will dry up their sea. I will make their springs run dry. ² 

“So the time will certainly come ¹  when I will punish the idols of Babylon. Her whole land will be put to shame. All her mortally wounded will collapse in her midst. ² 

Yes, but the time will certainly come,” ¹  says the Lord, ²  “when I will punish her idols. Throughout her land the mortally wounded will groan.

ח (Khet) Jerusalem committed terrible sin; ¹  therefore she became an object of scorn. ²  All who admired ³  her have despised her ⁴  because they have seen her nakedness. ⁵  She groans aloud ⁶  and turns away in shame. ⁷ 

“Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: I – even I – am against you, ¹  and I will execute judgment ²  among you while the nations watch. ³ 

Therefore fathers will eat their sons within you, Jerusalem, ¹  and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments on you, and I will scatter any survivors ²  to the winds. ³ 

They rendered the beauty of his ornaments into pride, ¹  and with it they made their abominable images – their detestable idols. Therefore I will render it filthy to them.

Then the Spirit of the Lord came ¹  upon me and said to me, “Say: This is what the Lord says: ‘This is what you are thinking, ²  O house of Israel; I know what goes through your minds. ³ 

Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘The corpses you have dumped ¹  in the midst of the city ²  are the meat, and this city ³  is the cooking pot, but I will take you out of it. ⁴ 

“‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: In my rage I will make a violent wind break out. In my anger there will be a deluge of rain and hailstones in destructive fury.