Ezekiel 17:12–21

^12*“Ask these rebels if they know what the parable means. Tell them that the king of Babylonia came to Jerusalem and took the king and his officials back with him to Babylonia. ^13*He took one of the king’s family, made a treaty with him, and made him swear to be loyal. He took important men as hostages ^14*to keep the nation from rising again and to make sure that the treaty would be kept. ^15*But the king of Judah rebelled and sent agents to Egypt to get horses and a large army. Will he succeed? Can he get away with that? He cannot break the treaty and go unpunished!

¹⁶“As surely as I am the living God,” says the Sovereign Lord, “this king will die in Babylonia because he broke his oath and the treaty he had made with the king of Babylonia, who put him on the throne. ¹⁷Even the powerful army of the king of Egypt will not be able to help him fight when the Babylonians build earthworks and dig trenches in order to kill many people. ¹⁸He broke his oath and the treaty he had made. He did all these things, and now he will not escape.”

¹⁹The Sovereign Lord says, “As surely as I am the living God, I will punish him for breaking the treaty which he swore in my name to keep. ²⁰I will spread out a hunter’s net and catch him in it. I will take him to Babylonia and punish him there, because he was unfaithful to me. ²¹His best soldiers will be killed in battle, and the survivors will be scattered in every direction. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken.”