For many nations and great kings will make slaves of the king of Babylon and his nation too. I will repay them for all they have done!’”

Maybe they will pay attention and each of them will stop living the evil way they do. If they do that, then I will forgo destroying them as I had intended to do because of the wicked things they have been doing.

I will make a lasting covenant with them that I will never stop doing good to them. I will fill their hearts and minds with respect for me so that they will never again turn away from me.

Micaiah told them everything he had heard Baruch read from the scroll in the hearing of the people.

Baruch answered, “Yes, they came from his own mouth. He dictated all these words to me and I wrote them down in ink on this scroll.”

The population of Egypt is like a vast, impenetrable forest. But I, the Lord, affirm that the enemy will cut them down. For those who chop them down will be more numerous than locusts. They will be too numerous to count.

Their tents and their flocks will be taken away. Their tent curtains, equipment, and camels will be carried off. People will shout to them, ‘Terror is all around you!’”

I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be silent and unable to reprove them, for they are a rebellious house.

They rendered the beauty of his ornaments into pride, and with it they made their abominable images – their detestable idols. Therefore I will render it filthy to them.

so that they may follow my statutes and observe my regulations and carry them out. Then they will be my people, and I will be their God.

“Son of man, these men have erected their idols in their hearts and placed the obstacle leading to their iniquity right before their faces. Should I really allow them to seek me?

“‘You took your sons and your daughters whom you bore to me and you sacrificed them as food for the idols to eat. As if your prostitution not enough,

I gave them my statutes and revealed my regulations to them. The one who carries them out will live by them!

I also gave them my Sabbaths as a reminder of our relationship, so that they would know that I, the Lord, sanctify them.

I also swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them throughout the lands.

For they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols, and their sons, whom they bore to me, they have passed through the fire as food to their idols.

On that day you will be able to speak again; you will talk with the fugitive and be silent no longer. You will be an object lesson for them, and they will know that I am the Lord.”

Realize that to them you are like a sensual song, a beautiful voice and skilled musician. They hear your words, but they do not obey them.

“‘I will make a covenant of peace with them and will rid the land of wild beasts, so that they can live securely in the wilderness and even sleep in the woods.

I will prepare for them a healthy planting. They will no longer be victims of famine in the land and will no longer bear the insults of the nations.