1 Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for these people, I would not feel pity for them! Get them away from me! Tell them to go away! 2 If they ask you, ‘Where should we go?’ tell them the Lord says this:

‘Those who are destined to die of disease will go to death by disease.

Those who are destined to die in war will go to death in war.

Those who are destined to die of starvation will go to death by starvation.

Those who are destined to go into exile will go into exile.’

3 “I will punish them in four different ways: I will have war kill them; I will have dogs drag off their dead bodies; I will have birds and wild beasts devour and destroy their corpses. 4 I will make all the people in all the kingdoms of the world horrified at what has happened to them because of what Hezekiah’s son Manasseh, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.”

5 The Lord cried out,

“Who in the world will have pity on you, Jerusalem?

Who will grieve over you?

Who will stop long enough

to inquire about how you are doing?

6 I, the Lord, say: ‘You people have deserted me;

you keep turning your back on me.’

So I have unleashed my power against you and have begun to destroy you.

I have grown tired of feeling sorry for you!”

7 The Lord continued,

“In every town in the land I will purge them

like straw blown away by the wind.

I will destroy my people.

I will kill off their children.

I will do so because they did not change their behavior.

8 Their widows will become in my sight more numerous

than the grains of sand on the seashores.

At noontime I will bring a destroyer

against the mothers of their young men.

I will cause anguish and terror

to fall suddenly upon them.

9 The mother who had seven children will grow faint.

All the breath will go out of her.

Her pride and joy will be taken from her in the prime of their life.

It will seem as if the sun had set while it was still day.

She will suffer shame and humiliation.

I will cause any of them who are still left alive

to be killed in war by the onslaughts of their enemies,”

says the Lord.

10 I said,

“Oh, mother, how I regret that you ever gave birth to me!

I am always starting arguments and quarrels with the people of this land.

I have not lent money to anyone, and I have not borrowed from anyone.

Yet all these people are treating me with contempt.”

11 The Lord said,

“Jerusalem, I will surely send you away for your own good.

I will surely bring the enemy upon you in a time of trouble and distress.

12 Can you people who are like iron and bronze

break that iron fist from the north?

13 I will give away your wealth and your treasures as plunder.

I will give it away free of charge for the sins you have committed throughout your land.

14 I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you know nothing about.

For my anger is like a fire that will burn against you.”

15 I said,

“Lord, you know how I suffer.

Take thought of me and care for me.

Pay back for me those who have been persecuting me.

Do not be so patient with them that you allow them to kill me.

Be mindful of how I have put up with their insults for your sake.

16 As your words came to me, I drank them in,

and they filled my heart with joy and happiness

because I belong to you, O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies.

17 I did not spend my time in the company of other people,

laughing and having a good time.

I stayed to myself because I felt obligated to you

and because I was filled with anger at what they had done.

18 Why must I continually suffer such painful anguish?

Why must I endure the sting of their insults like an incurable wound?

Will you let me down when I need you,

like a brook one goes to for water but that cannot be relied on?”

19 Because of this, the Lord said,

“You must repent of such words and thoughts!

If you do, I will restore you to the privilege of serving me.

If you say what is worthwhile instead of what is worthless,

I will again allow you to be my spokesman.

They must become as you have been.

You must not become like them.

20 I will make you as strong as a wall to these people,

a fortified wall of bronze.

They will attack you,

but they will not be able to overcome you.

For I will be with you to rescue you and deliver you,”

says the Lord.

21 “I will deliver you from the power of the wicked.

I will free you from the clutches of violent people.”

16:1 The Lord’s message came to me, 2 “Do not get married and do not have children here in this land. 3 For I, the Lord, tell you what will happen to the children who are born here in this land and to the men and women who are their mothers and fathers. 4 They will die of deadly diseases. No one will mourn for them. They will not be buried. Their dead bodies will lie like manure spread on the ground. They will be killed in war or die of starvation. Their corpses will be food for the birds and wild animals.

5 “Moreover I, the Lord, tell you: ‘Do not go into a house where they are having a funeral meal. Do not go there to mourn and express your sorrow for them. For I have stopped showing them my good favor, my love, and my compassion. I, the Lord, so affirm it! 6 Rich and poor alike will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned. People will not cut their bodies or shave off their hair to show their grief for them. 7 No one will take any food to those who mourn for the dead to comfort them. No one will give them any wine to drink to console them for the loss of their father or mother.

8 “‘Do not go to a house where people are feasting and sit down to eat and drink with them either. 9 For I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, tell you what will happen. I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness, to the glad celebration of brides and grooms in this land. You and the rest of the people will live to see this happen.’

10 “When you tell these people about all this, they will undoubtedly ask you, ‘Why has the Lord threatened us with such great disaster? What wrong have we done? What sin have we done to offend the Lord our God?’ 11 Then tell them that the Lord says, ‘It is because your ancestors rejected me and paid allegiance to other gods. They have served them and worshiped them. But they have rejected me and not obeyed my law. 12 And you have acted even more wickedly than your ancestors! Each one of you has followed the stubborn inclinations of your own wicked heart and not obeyed me. 13 So I will throw you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have ever known. There you must worship other gods day and night, for I will show you no mercy.’

14 “Yet I, the Lord, say: ‘A new time will certainly come. People now affirm their oaths with “I swear as surely as the Lord lives who delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt.” 15 But in that time they will affirm them with “I swear as surely as the Lord lives who delivered the people of Israel from the land of the north and from all the other lands where he had banished them.” At that time I will bring them back to the land I gave their ancestors.

16 “But for now I, the Lord, say: ‘I will send many enemies who will catch these people like fishermen. After that I will send others who will hunt them out like hunters from all the mountains, all the hills, and the crevices in the rocks. 17 For I see everything they do. Their wicked ways are not hidden from me. Their sin is not hidden away where I cannot see it. 18 Before I restore them I will punish them in full for their sins and the wrongs they have done. For they have polluted my land with the lifeless statues of their disgusting idols. They have filled the land I have claimed as my own with their detestable idols.’

19 Then I said,

“Lord, you give me strength and protect me.

You are the one I can run to for safety when I am in trouble.

Nations from all over the earth

will come to you and say,

‘Our ancestors had nothing but false gods—

worthless idols that could not help them at all.’

20 Can people make their own gods?

No, what they make are not gods at all.”

21 The Lord said,

“So I will now let this wicked people know—

I will let them know my mighty power in judgment.

Then they will know that my name is the Lord.