The Lord Will Not Relent

15 Then the Lord said to me, p“Though qMoses rand Samuel sstood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go! 2 And when they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord:

t“ ‘Those who are for pestilence, to pestilence,

and those who are for the sword, to the sword;

those who are for famine, to famine,

and those who are for captivity, to captivity.’

3 uI will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the Lord: the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, and vthe birds of the air wand the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 4 xAnd I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what yManasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.

5  z“Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem,

zor who will grieve for you?

Who will turn aside

to ask about your welfare?

6  aYou have rejected me, declares the Lord;

byou keep going backward,

so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you—

cI am weary of relenting.

7  dI have winnowed them with ea winnowing fork

in the gates of the land;

I have bereaved them; I have destroyed my people;

fthey did not turn from their ways.

8  I have made their widows more in number

than gthe sand of the seas;

I have brought against the mothers of young men

a destroyer at noonday;

I have made anguish and terror

fall upon them suddenly.

9  hShe who bore seven has grown feeble;

ishe has fainted away;

jher sun went down while it was yet day;

she has been shamed and disgraced.

And the rest of them I will give to the sword

before their enemies,

declares the Lord.”