They will no longer injure or destroy on my entire royal mountain. ¹  For there will be universal submission to the Lord’s sovereignty, just as the waters completely cover the sea. ² 

Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons; ¹  they have no compassion on a person’s offspring, ²  they will not ³  look with pity on children.

Prepare to execute ¹  his sons for the sins their ancestors have committed. ²  They must not rise up and take possession of the earth, or fill the surface of the world with cities.” ³ 

“I will provoke civil strife in Egypt, ¹  brothers will fight with each other, as will neighbors, cities, and kingdoms. ² 

Assyria will fall by a sword, but not one human-made; ¹  a sword not made by humankind will destroy them. ²  They will run away from this sword ³  and their young men will be forced to do hard labor.

Look, I create the craftsman, who fans the coals into a fire and forges a weapon. ¹  I create the destroyer so he might devastate.

you who practice ritual sex ¹  under the oaks and every green tree, who slaughter children near the streams under the rocky overhangs. ² 

Your names will live on in the curse formulas of my chosen ones. ¹  The sovereign Lord will kill you, but he will give his servants another name.

Even your clothes are stained with the lifeblood of the poor who had not done anything wrong; you did not catch them breaking into your homes. ¹  Yet, in spite of all these things you have done, ² 

Stop oppressing foreigners who live in your land, children who have lost their fathers, and women who have lost their husbands. ¹  Stop killing innocent people ²  in this land. Stop paying allegiance to ³  other gods. That will only bring about your ruin. ⁴ 

The Lord says, ¹  “Yes indeed, ²  I am sending an enemy against you that will be like poisonous snakes which cannot be charmed away. ³  And they will inflict fatal wounds on you.” ⁴ 

(8:23) ¹  I wish that my head were a well full of water ²  and my eyes were a fountain full of tears! If they were, I could cry day and night for those of my dear people ³  who have been killed.

Their tongues are like deadly arrows. ¹  They are always telling lies. ²  Friendly words for their neighbors come from their mouths. But their minds are thinking up ways to trap them. ³ 

So the Lord who rules over all ¹  said, “I will surely ²  punish them! Their young men will be killed in battle. ³  Their sons and daughters will die of starvation.

A destructive army ¹  will come marching over the hilltops in the desert. For the Lord will use them as his destructive weapon ²  against ³  everyone from one end of the land to the other. No one will be safe. ⁴ 

Even if they fast, I will not hear their cries for help. Even if they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. ¹  Instead, I will kill them through wars, famines, and plagues.” ² 

The Lord continued, ¹  “In every town in the land I will purge them like straw blown away by the wind. ²  I will destroy my people. I will kill off their children. I will do so because they did not change their behavior. ³ 

But you are always thinking and looking for ways to increase your wealth by dishonest means. Your eyes and your heart are set on killing some innocent person and committing fraud and oppression. ¹ 

There is no reason why you and your people should die in war ¹  or from starvation or disease! ²  That’s what the Lord says will happen to any nation ³  that will not be subject to the king of Babylon.

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.