Then the Lord said to me: “I would not feel sorry for the people of Judah even if Moses and Samuel prayed for them. Send them away from me! Tell them to go! ²When they ask you, ‘Where will we go?’ tell them: ‘This is what the Lord says:

Those who are meant to die

will die.

Those who are meant to die in war

will die in war.

Those who are meant to die from hunger

will die from hunger.

Those who are meant to be taken captive

will be taken captive.’

³“I will send four kinds of destroyers against them,” says the Lord. “I will send war to kill, dogs to drag the bodies away, and the birds of the air and wild animals to eat and destroy the bodies. ⁴I will make the people of Judah hated by everyone on earth because of what Manasseh did in Jerusalem. (Manasseh son of Hezekiah was king of the nation of Judah.)

⁵“Who will feel sorry for you, Jerusalem?

Who will be sad and cry for you?

Who will go out of his way to ask how you are?

⁶Jerusalem, you have left me,” says the Lord.

“You keep going farther and farther away,

so I have taken hold of you and destroyed you.

I was tired of holding back my anger.

⁷I have separated the people of Judah with my pitchfork

and scattered them at the city gates of the land.

My people haven’t changed their ways.

So I have destroyed them

and taken away their children.

⁸There are more widows than grains of sand in the sea.

I brought a destroyer at noontime

against the mothers of the young men of Judah.

I suddenly brought pain and fear

on the people of Judah.

⁹When the enemy attacked, a woman with seven sons felt faint because they would all die.

She became weak and unable to breathe.

Her bright day became dark from sadness.

She felt shame and disgrace.

And everyone else left alive in Judah

I will hand over to the enemies, too!” says the Lord.

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