<p class="poetry">Even the doe abandons her newborn fawn<n id="1" /> in the fieldp> <p class="poetry">because there is no grass.p>

<p class="poetry">and on the mountains and in the fields.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">I will give your wealth and all your treasures away as plunder.p> <p class="poetry">I will give it away as the price<n id="2" /> for the sins you have committed throughout your land.p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">Johanan and all the officers of the troops that had been hiding in the open country came to Gedaliah at Mizpah.

<p class="poetry">People of Jerusalem,<n id="1" /> I have seen your adulterous worship,p> <p class="poetry">your shameless prostitution to, and your lustful pursuit of, other gods.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">I have seen your disgusting acts of worship<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">on the hills throughout the countryside.p> <p class="poetry">You are doomed to destruction!<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">How long will you continue to be unclean?&#8217;&#8221;p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">Now some of the officers of the Judean army and their troops had been hiding in the countryside. They heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam to govern<n id="1" /> the country. They also heard that he had been put in charge over the men, women, and children from the poorer classes of the land who had not been carried off into exile in Babylon.<n id="2" />

But there were ten men among them who said<n id="1" /> to Ishmael, &#8220;Do not kill us. For we will give you the stores of wheat, barley, olive oil, and honey we have hidden in a field.<n id="2" /> So he spared their lives and did not kill<n id="3" /> them along with the rest.<n id="4" />