Then the dead bodies of these people will be left on the ground for the birds and wild animals to eat. There will not be any survivors to scare them away.

Why, then, do these people of Jerusalem continually turn away from me in apostasy? They hold fast to their deception. They refuse to turn back to me.

Then the Lord said to me, “Do not pray for good to come to these people!

“Do not get married and do not have children here in this land.

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

The Lord told me, “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah. Give him a message from me there.

But listen to what I say to you and to all these people.

Zephaniah the priest read that letter to the prophet Jeremiah.

Listen to this funeral song I am ready to sing about you, family of Israel:

“Is it right for you to live in richly paneled houses while my temple is in ruins?

But I will be different now to this remnant of my people from the way I was in those days,’ says the Lord who rules over all,

So you will keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because on this very day I brought your regiments out from the land of Egypt, and so you must keep this day perpetually as a lasting ordinance.

The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this desert to kill this whole assembly with hunger!”

“If you refuse to obey all the words of this law, the things written in this scroll, and refuse to fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God,

“Moses my servant is dead. Get ready! Cross the Jordan River! Lead these people into the land which I am ready to hand over to them.

Then they erected over him a large pile of stones (it remains to this very day) and the Lord’s anger subsided. So that place is called the Valley of Disaster to this very day.

This very day the Lord will deliver you into my hand! I will strike you down and cut off your head. This day I will give the corpses of the Philistine army to the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the land. Then all the land will realize that Israel has a God

Since you did not obey the Lord and did not carry out his fierce anger against the Amalekites, the Lord has done this thing to you today.

David said to him, “Can you take us down to this raiding party?” He said, “Swear to me by God that you will not kill me or hand me over to my master, and I will take you down to this raiding party.”

But Joab said to him, “You will not be a bearer of good news today. You will bear good news some other day, but not today, for the king’s son is dead.”