For I, the Lord, affirm that ¹  I will soon give the order and bring them back to this city. They will fight against it and capture it and burn it down. I will also make the towns of Judah desolate so that there will be no one living in them.”’”

Then King Zedekiah ordered that Jeremiah be committed to the courtyard of the guardhouse. He also ordered that a loaf of bread ¹  be given to him every day from the baker’s street until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah was kept ²  in the courtyard of the guardhouse.

So these officials said to the king, “This man must be put to death. For he is demoralizing ¹  the soldiers who are left in the city as well as all the other people there by these things he is saying. ²  This ³  man is not seeking to help these people but is trying to harm them.” ⁴ 

“Your royal Majesty, those men have been very wicked in all that they have done to the prophet Jeremiah. They have thrown him into a cistern and he is sure to die of starvation there because there is no food left in the city. ¹ 

Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “The Lord, the God who rules over all, the God of Israel, ¹  says, ‘You must surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon. If you do, your life will be spared ²  and this city will not be burned down. Indeed, you and your whole family will be spared.

When King Zedekiah of Judah and all his soldiers saw them, they tried to escape. They departed from the city during the night. They took a path through the king’s garden and passed out through the gate between the two walls. ¹  Then they headed for the Jordan Valley. ² 

“Go ¹  and tell Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, ‘The Lord God of Israel who rules over all says, “I will carry out against this city what I promised. It will mean disaster and not good fortune for it. ²  When that disaster happens, you will be there to see it. ³ 

People will not praise Moab any more. The enemy will capture Heshbon ¹  and plot ²  how to destroy Moab, ³  saying, ‘Come, let’s put an end to that nation!’ City of Madmen, you will also be destroyed. ⁴  A destructive army will march against you. ⁵ 

Shout the battle cry from all around the city. She will throw up her hands in surrender. ¹  Her towers ²  will fall. Her walls will be torn down. Because I, the Lord, am wreaking revenge, ³  take out your vengeance on her! Do to her as she has done!

“Call for archers ¹  to come against Babylon! Summon against her all who draw the bow! Set up camp all around the city! Do not allow anyone to escape! Pay her back for what she has done. Do to her what she has done to others. For she has proudly defied me, ²  the Holy One of Israel. ³ 

Give the signal to attack Babylon’s wall! ¹  Bring more guards! ²  Post them all around the city! ³  Put men in ambush! ⁴  For the Lord will do what he has planned. He will do what he said he would do to the people of Babylon. ⁵ 

ט (Tet) Her city gates have fallen ¹  to the ground; he smashed to bits ²  the bars that lock her gates. ³  Her king and princes were taken into exile; ⁴  there is no more guidance available. ⁵  As for her prophets, they no longer receive ⁶  a vision from the Lord.

ס (Samek) All who passed by on the road clapped their hands to mock you. ¹  They sneered and shook their heads at Daughter Jerusalem. “Ha! Is this the city they called ²  ‘The perfection of beauty, ³  the source of joy of the whole earth!’?” ⁴ 

Then for your part take an iron frying pan ¹  and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face toward it. It is to be under siege; you are to besiege it. This is a sign ²  for the house of Israel.

He said to me, “The sin of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of murder, and the city is full of corruption, ¹  for they say, ‘The Lord has abandoned the land, and the Lord does not see!’ ² 

“You, son of man, mark out two routes for the king of Babylon’s sword to take; both of them will originate in a single land. Make a signpost and put it at the beginning of the road leading to the city.

He will cover you with the dust kicked up by his many horses. ¹  Your walls will shake from the noise of the horsemen, wheels, and chariots when he enters your gates like those who invade through a city’s broken walls. ² 

In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city ¹  was struck down, on this very day, ²  the hand ³  of the Lord was on me, and he brought me there. ⁴ 

The remainder of the length alongside the holy allotment will be three and one-third miles ¹  to the east and three and one-third miles toward the west, and it will be beside the holy allotment. Its produce will be for food for the workers of the city.

O Lord, according to all your justice, ¹  please turn your raging anger ²  away from your city Jerusalem, your holy mountain. For due to our sins and the iniquities of our ancestors, Jerusalem and your people are mocked by all our neighbors.