<p class="bodytext">&#8220;Come back to me, my wayward sons,&#8221; says the <sc>Lordsc>, &#8220;for I am your true master.<n id="1" /> If you do,<n id="2" /> I will take one of you from each town and two of you from each family group, and I will bring you back to Zion.

Then tell them,<n id="1" /> &#8216;The <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel who rules over all<n id="2" /> says, &#8220;I will bring<n id="3" /> my servant<n id="4" /> King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I will set his throne over these stones which I<n id="5" /> have buried. He will pitch his royal tent<n id="6" /> over them.

So I, the <sc>Lordsc>, affirm that<n id="1" /> I will send for all the peoples of the north<n id="2" /> and my servant,<n id="3" /> King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and all the nations that surround it. I will utterly destroy<n id="4" /> this land, its inhabitants, and all the nations that surround it<n id="5" /> and make them everlasting ruins.<n id="6" /> I will make them objects of horror and hissing scorn.<n id="7" />

I will see to it that all the Judean remnant that was determined to go<n id="1" /> and live in the land of Egypt will be destroyed. Here in the land of Egypt they will fall in battle<n id="2" /> or perish from starvation. People of every class<n id="3" /> will die in war or from starvation. They will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example of those who have been cursed and that people use in pronouncing a curse.<n id="4" />