Even the soldiers ¹  from Memphis and Tahpanhes have cracked your skulls, people of Israel. ² 

all the people of Edom, ¹  Moab, ²  Ammon; ³ 

“So, once more I will state my case ¹  against you,” says the Lord. “I will also state it against your children and grandchildren. ² 

But Ishmael son of Nethaniah managed to escape from Johanan along with eight of his men, and he went on over to Ammon.

Yet in days to come I will reverse Ammon’s ill fortune.” ¹  says the Lord. ² 

This will happen because the people of Israel and Judah have repeatedly done what displeases me ¹  from their earliest history until now ²  and because they ³  have repeatedly made me angry by the things they have done. ⁴  I, the Lord, affirm it! ⁵ 

“A noise is heard on the hilltops. It is the sound of the people of Israel crying and pleading to their gods. Indeed they have followed sinful ways; ¹  they have forgotten to be true to the Lord their God. ² 

The Lord says, “I have rejected them because ¹  the people of Judah have done what I consider evil. ²  They have set up their disgusting idols in the temple ³  which I have claimed for my own ⁴  and have defiled it.

But our tents have been destroyed. The ropes that held them in place have been ripped apart. ¹  Our children are gone and are not coming back. ²  There is no survivor to put our tents back up, no one left to hang their tent curtains in place.

Yet ¹  I, the Lord, say: ²  “A new time will certainly come. ³  People now affirm their oaths with ‘I swear as surely as the Lord lives who delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt.’

“So I, the Lord, say: ¹  ‘A new time will certainly come. ²  People now affirm their oaths with “I swear as surely as the Lord lives who delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt.”

and they brought Uriah back from there. ¹  They took him to King Jehoiakim, who had him executed and had his body thrown into the burial place of the common people. ² 

You plan great things and you do mighty deeds. ¹  You see everything people do. ²  You reward each of them for the way they live and for the things they do. ³ 

Then I set cups and pitchers full of wine in front of the members of the Rechabite community and said to them, “Have some wine.” ¹ 

Yes, ¹  the descendants of Jonadab son of Rechab have carried out the orders that their ancestor gave them. But you people ²  have not obeyed me!

There at Riblah the king of Babylon had Zedekiah’s sons put to death while Zedekiah was forced to watch. The king of Babylon also had all the nobles of Judah put to death.

In the shadows of the walls of Heshbon those trying to escape will stand helpless. For a fire will burst forth from Heshbon. Flames will shoot out from the former territory of Sihon. They will burn the foreheads of the people of Moab, the skulls of those war-loving people. ¹ 

The Lord who rules over all ¹  says, “The people of Israel are oppressed. So too are the people of Judah. ²  All those who took them captive are holding them prisoners. They refuse to set them free.

The king of Babylon had Zedekiah’s sons put to death while Zedekiah was forced to watch. He also had all the nobles of Judah put to death there at Riblah.

“Run for safety, people of Benjamin! Get out of Jerusalem! ¹  Sound the trumpet ²  in Tekoa! Light the signal fires at Beth Hakkerem! For disaster lurks ³  out of the north; it will bring great destruction. ⁴