Yes, your land lies in ruins; it is desolate and devastated. But now you will be too small to hold your residents, and those who devoured you will be far away.

There was no one to lead her among all the children she bore; there was no one to take her by the hand among all the children she raised.

“Indeed, the Lord will call you back like a wife who has been abandoned and suffers from depression, like a young wife when she has been rejected,” says your God.

Look, I create the craftsman, who fans the coals into a fire and forges a weapon. I create the destroyer so he might devastate.

For I will not be hostile forever or perpetually angry, for then man’s spirit would grow faint before me, the life-giving breath I created.

They will rebuild the perpetual ruins and restore the places that were desolate; they will reestablish the ruined cities, the places that have been desolate since ancient times.

“Take the shorts that you bought and are wearing and go at once to Perath. Bury the shorts there in a crack in the rocks.”

How long will they go on plotting to make my people forget who I am through the dreams they tell one another? That is just as bad as what their ancestors did when they forgot who I am by worshiping the god Baal.

So, now the Lord says, ‘You have not listened to me. But you have made me angry by the things that you have done. Thus you have brought harm on yourselves.’

I will purify them from all the sin that they committed against me. I will forgive all their sins which they committed in rebelling against me.

This day I have told you what he said. But you do not want to obey the Lord by doing what he sent me to tell you.

I will destroy Babylonia just like I did Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns. No one will live there. No human being will settle in it,” says the Lord.

I came to the exiles at Tel Abib, who lived by the Kebar River. I sat dumbfounded among them there, where they were living, for seven days.

I will punish you as an adulteress and murderer deserves. I will avenge your bloody deeds with furious rage.

Then everyone will know that I am the Lord, who drew my sword from its sheath – it will not be sheathed again!’

Slanderous men shed blood within you. Those who live within you eat pagan sacrifices on the mountains; they commit obscene acts among you.

They will repay you for your obscene conduct, and you will be punished for idol worship. Then you will know that I am the sovereign Lord.”

Set the empty pot on the coals, until it becomes hot and its copper glows, until its uncleanness melts within it and its rot is consumed.

They will descend from their ships – all who handle the oar, the sailors and all the sea captains – they will stand on the land.

“‘You said, “These two nations, these two lands will be mine, and we will possess them,” – although the Lord was there –