Jeremiah 21:1–7

Jerusalem’s Doom is Sealed

21The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord when ^aKing Zedekiah sent to him ^bPashhur the son of Melchiah, and ^cZephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying, ^2d“Please inquire of the Lord for us, for ¹Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon makes war against us. Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all His wonderful works, that the king may go away from us.”

³Then Jeremiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to Zedekiah, ⁴‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the ²Chaldeans who besiege you outside the walls; and ^eI will assemble them in the midst of this city. ⁵I ^fMyself will fight against you with an ^goutstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger and fury and great wrath. ⁶I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they shall die of a great pestilence. ⁷And afterward,” says the Lord, ^h“I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, his servants and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence and the sword and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life; and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword. ⁱHe shall not spare them, or have pity or mercy.” ’