“‘But I will spare some of you. Some will escape the sword when you are scattered in foreign lands. ¹ 

On that day a fugitive will come to you to report the news. ¹ 

Their survivors will escape to the mountains and become like doves of the valleys; all of them will moan – each one for his iniquity.

You should not have stood at the fork in the road ¹  to slaughter ²  those trying to escape. ³  You should not have captured their refugees when they suffered adversity. ⁴ 

None of the Judean remnant who have come to live in the land of Egypt will escape or survive to return to the land of Judah. Though they long to return and live there, none of them shall return except a few fugitives.’” ¹ 

A fugitive ¹  came and told Abram the Hebrew. ²  Now Abram was living by the oaks ³  of Mamre the Amorite, the brother ⁴  of Eshcol and Aner. (All these were allied by treaty ⁵  with Abram.) ⁶ 

Woe to you, Moab. You are ruined, O people of Chemosh! ¹  He has made his sons fugitives, and his daughters the prisoners of King Sihon of the Amorites.

Gather together and come! Approach together, you refugees from the nations! Those who carry wooden idols know nothing, those who pray to a god that cannot deliver.

Listen! Fugitives and refugees are coming from the land of Babylon. They are coming to Zion to declare there how the Lord our God is getting revenge, getting revenge for what they have done to his temple. ¹ 

You who have escaped the sword, ¹  go, do not delay. ²  Remember the Lord in a faraway land. Think about Jerusalem. ³ 

ת (Tav) As if it were a feast day, you call ¹  enemies ²  to terrify me ³  on every side. ⁴  On the day of the Lord’s anger no one escaped or survived. My enemy has finished off those healthy infants whom I bore ⁵  and raised. ⁶ 

On that day you will be able to speak again; ¹  you will talk with the fugitive and be silent no longer. You will be an object lesson for them, and they will know that I am the Lord.”

In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month, on the fifth of the month, ¹  a refugee came to me from Jerusalem ²  saying, “The city has been defeated!” ³ 

At the same time the men who had taken the city came out to fight, and the men of Ai were trapped in the middle. ¹  The Israelites struck them down, leaving no survivors or refugees.

Jephthah assembled all the men of Gilead and they fought with Ephraim. The men of Gilead defeated Ephraim, because the Ephraimites insulted them, saying, ¹  “You Gileadites are refugees in Ephraim, living within Ephraim’s and Manasseh’s territory.” ² 

The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan River ¹  opposite Ephraim. ²  Whenever an Ephraimite fugitive ³  said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead asked ⁴  him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he said, “No,”

But King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds he received from the Syrians ¹  when he fought against King Hazael of Syria. ²  Jehu told his supporters, ³  “If you really want me to be king, ⁴  then don’t let anyone escape from the city to go and warn Jezreel.”

I will perform a mighty act among them ¹  and then send some of those who remain to the nations – to Tarshish, Pul, ²  Lud ³  (known for its archers ⁴ ), Tubal, Javan, ⁵  and to the distant coastlands ⁶  that have not heard about me or seen my splendor. They will tell the nations of my splendor.

All the people who are determined to go and settle in Egypt will die from war, starvation, or disease. No one will survive or escape the disaster I will bring on them.’

Some who survive in battle will return to the land of Judah from the land of Egypt. But they will be very few indeed! ¹  Then the Judean remnant who have come to live in the land of Egypt will know whose word proves true, ²  mine or theirs.’