<p class="bodytext">Then I said,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Look up, Jerusalem,<n id="2" /> and seep> <p class="poetry">the enemy<n id="3" /> that is coming from the north.p> <p class="poetry">Where now is the flock of people that were entrusted to your care?<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">Where now are the &#8216;sheep&#8217; that you take such pride in?<n id="5" />p>

As you stand in those places<n id="1" /> announce, &#8216;Listen, all you people who pass through these gates. Listen, all you kings of Judah, all you people of Judah and all you citizens of Jerusalem. Listen to what the <sc>Lordsc> says.<n id="2" />

Say: &#8216;Listen, O king of Judah who follows in David&#8217;s succession.<n id="1" /> You, your officials, and your subjects who pass through the gates of this palace must listen to what the <sc>Lordsc> says.<n id="2" />

&#8220;Stand in the gate of the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple and proclaim<n id="1" /> this message: &#8216;Listen, all you people of Judah who have passed through these gates to worship the <sc>Lordsc>.<n id="2" /> Hear what the <sc>Lordsc> has to say.

The <sc>Lordsc> said, &#8220;Go stand in the courtyard of the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple.<n id="1" /> Speak out to all the people who are coming from the towns of Judah to worship in the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple. Tell them everything I command you to tell them. Do not leave out a single word!

Use it to send messages to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre,<n id="1" /> and Sidon.<n id="2" /> Send them through<n id="3" /> the envoys who have come to Jerusalem<n id="4" /> to King Zedekiah of Judah.

I will also bring back to this place Jehoiakim&#8217;s son King Jeconiah of Judah and all the exiles who were taken to Babylon.&#8217; Indeed, the <sc>Lordsc> affirms,<n id="1" /> &#8216;I will break the yoke of servitude to the king of Babylon.&#8217;&#8221;p>

So you go there the next time all the people of Judah come in from their towns to fast<n id="1" /> in the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s temple. Read out loud where all of them can hear you what I told you the <sc>Lordsc> said, which you wrote in the scroll.<n id="2" />

All the people living in Jerusalem<n id="1" /> and all the people who came into Jerusalem from the towns of Judah came to observe a fast before the <sc>Lordsc>. The fast took place in the ninth month of the fifth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was ruling over Judah.<n id="2" />

None of the Judean remnant who have come to live in the land of Egypt will escape or survive to return to the land of Judah. Though they long to return and live there, none of them shall return except a few fugitives.&#8217;&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

Some who survive in battle will return to the land of Judah from the land of Egypt. But they will be very few indeed!<n id="1" /> Then the Judean remnant who have come to live in the land of Egypt will know whose word proves true,<n id="2" /> mine or theirs.&#8217;