He followed in the footsteps of the kings of Israel, just as Ahab’s dynasty had done, for he married Ahab’s daughter. ¹  He did evil in the sight of ²  the Lord.

In Judah God moved the people to unite and carry out the edict the king and the officers had issued at the Lord’s command. ¹ 

Indeed, they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race ¹  has become intermingled with the local residents. Worse still, the leaders and the officials have been at the forefront of all of this!”

I cannot eat, I weep day and night; ¹  all day long they say to me, ²  “Where is your God?”

There will be a highway leading out of Assyria for the remnant of his people, ¹  just as there was for Israel, when ²  they went up from the land of Egypt.

¹ The Lord who commands armies makes this solemn vow: “Be sure of this: Just as I have intended, so it will be; just as I have planned, it will happen.

Look, all of you who start a fire and who equip yourselves with ¹  flaming arrows, ²  walk ³  in the light ⁴  of the fire you started and among the flaming arrows you ignited! ⁵  This is what you will receive from me: ⁶  you will lie down in a place of pain. ⁷ 

Go west ¹  across the sea to the coasts of Cyprus ²  and see. Send someone east to Kedar ³  and have them look carefully. See if such a thing as this has ever happened:

The Lord is like a lion who has left his lair. ¹  So their lands will certainly ²  be laid waste by the warfare of the oppressive nation ³  and by the fierce anger of the Lord.”

However, Ahikam son of Shaphan ¹  used his influence to keep Jeremiah from being handed over and executed by the people. ² 

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.

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 

פ (Pe) Zion spread out her hands, but there is no one to comfort her. The Lord has issued a decree against Jacob; his neighbors ¹  have become his enemies. Jerusalem has become like filthy garbage ²  in their midst. ³ 

Consider Assyria, ¹  a cedar in Lebanon, ²  with beautiful branches, like a forest giving shade, and extremely tall; its top reached into the clouds.

This is what the sovereign Lord says: The enemy has spoken against you, saying “Aha!” and, “The ancient heights ¹  have become our property!”’

“Son of man, when the house of Israel was living on their own land, they defiled it by their behavior ¹  and their deeds. In my sight their behavior was like the uncleanness of a woman having her monthly period.

They will say, “This desolate land has become like the garden of Eden; the ruined, desolate, and destroyed cities are now fortified and inhabited.”

The hand ¹  of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and placed ²  me in the midst of the valley, and it was full of bones.

Like fire they devour everything in their path; ¹  a flame blazes behind them. The land looks like the Garden of Eden ²  before them, but behind them there is only a desolate wilderness – for nothing escapes them! ³ 

So Jonah went immediately to Nineveh, as the Lord had said. (Now Nineveh was an enormous city ¹  – it required three days to walk through it!) ²