Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for these people, I wouldn’t help them. Away with them! Get them out of my sight! ²And if they say to you, ‘But where can we go?’ tell them, ‘This is what the Lord says:

“ ‘Those who are destined for death, to death;

those who are destined for war, to war;

those who are destined for famine, to famine;

those who are destined for captivity, to captivity.’

³“I will send four kinds of destroyers against them,” says the Lord. “I will send the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, the vultures to devour, and the wild animals to finish up what is left. ⁴Because of the wicked things Manasseh son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem, I will make my people an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

⁵“Who will feel sorry for you, Jerusalem?

Who will weep for you?

Who will even bother to ask how you are?

⁶You have abandoned me

and turned your back on me,”

says the Lord.

“Therefore, I will raise my fist to destroy you.

I am tired of always giving you another chance.

⁷I will winnow you like grain at the gates of your cities

and take away the children you hold dear.

I will destroy my own people,

because they refuse to change their evil ways.

⁸There will be more widows

than the grains of sand on the seashore.

At noontime I will bring a destroyer

against the mothers of young men.

I will cause anguish and terror

to come upon them suddenly.

⁹The mother of seven grows faint and gasps for breath;

her sun has gone down while it is still day.

She sits childless now,

disgraced and humiliated.

And I will hand over those who are left

to be killed by the enemy.

I, the Lord, have spoken!”

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