The gates of the towns in southern Judah will be shut tight. No one will be able to go in or out of them. All Judah will be carried off into exile. They will be completely carried off into exile.’”

I, the Lord, say: ‘That is how I will deal with this city and its citizens. I will make it like Topheth.

I will kill everything living in Jerusalem, people and animals alike! They will die from terrible diseases.

The land of Judah will be inhabited by people who live in its towns as well as by farmers and shepherds with their flocks.

“Indeed a time is coming,” says the Lord, “when the city of Jerusalem will be rebuilt as my special city. It will be built from the Tower of Hananel westward to the Corner Gate.

Then the Babylonian forces will return. They will attack the city and will capture it and burn it down.

They had also heard him say, “The Lord says, ‘This city will certainly be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon. They will capture it.’”

It lasted until the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year. On that day they broke through the city walls.

Set up a gravestone for Moab, for it will certainly be laid in ruins! Its cities will be laid waste and become uninhabited.”

on Kerioth and Bozrah. It will come on all the towns of Moab, both far and near.

Leave your towns, you inhabitants of Moab. Go and live in the cliffs. Be like a dove that makes its nest high on the sides of a ravine.

You will stumble and fall, you proud city; no one will help you get up. I will set fire to your towns; it will burn up everything that surrounds you.”

The city remained under siege until Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city was so severe the residents had no food.

(Make the chain, because the land is full of murder and the city is full of violence.)

Then he shouted in my ears, “Approach, you who are to visit destruction on the city, each with his destructive weapon in his hand!”

The inhabited towns will be left in ruins and the land will be devastated. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

He plucked off its topmost shoot; he brought it to a land of merchants and planted it in a city of traders.

He broke down their strongholds and devastated their cities. The land and everything in it was frightened at the sound of his roaring.

“As for you, son of man, are you willing to pronounce judgment, are you willing to pronounce judgment on the bloody city? Then confront her with all her abominable deeds!