I am as full of anger as you are, Lord, ¹  I am tired of trying to hold it in.” The Lord answered, ²  “Vent it, then, ³  on the children who play in the street and on the young men who are gathered together. Husbands and wives are to be included, ⁴  as well as the old and those who are advanced in years.

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.’

What will you say ¹  when the Lord ²  appoints as rulers over you those allies that you, yourself, had actually prepared as such? ³  Then anguish and agony will grip you like that of a woman giving birth to a baby. ⁴ 

They are regarded as ‘rejected silver’ ¹  because the Lord rejects them.”

But as soon as they were inside the city, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the men who were with him slaughtered them and threw their bodies ¹  in a cistern.

Egypt will run away, hissing like a snake, ¹  as the enemy comes marching up in force. They will come against her with axes as if they were woodsmen chopping down trees.

Look! Like an eagle with outspread wings, a nation will soar up and swoop down on Bozrah. At that time the soldiers of Edom will be as fearful as a woman in labor.” ¹ 

I will surely punish them for doing such things!” says the Lord. “I will surely bring retribution on such a nation as this!” ¹ 

I will certainly punish them for doing such things!” says the Lord. “I will certainly bring retribution on such a nation as this!” ¹ 

Destructive forces will come against her horses and her ¹  chariots. Destructive forces will come against all the foreign troops within her; ²  they will be as frightened as women! ³  Destructive forces will come against her treasures; they will be taken away as plunder!

So I bought the shorts as the Lord had told me to do ¹  and put them on. ² 

“Babylon must fall ¹  because of the Israelites she has killed, ²  just as the earth’s mortally wounded fell because of Babylon. ³ 

Instead they have followed the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts. They have paid allegiance to ¹  the gods called Baal, ²  as their fathers ³  taught them to do.

Why do you constantly go about changing your political allegiances? ¹  You will get no help from Egypt just as you got no help from Assyria. ² 

I will certainly punish them for doing such things!” says the Lord. “I will certainly bring retribution on such a nation as this! ¹ 

I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt with war, starvation, and disease just as I punished Jerusalem.

Now there was another man ¹  who prophesied as the Lord’s representative ²  against this city and this land just as Jeremiah did. His name was Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath Jearim. ³ 

I will give away your wealth and your treasures as plunder. I will give it away free of charge for the sins you have committed throughout your land.

How long will they go on plotting ¹  to make my people forget who I am ²  through the dreams they tell one another? That is just as bad as what their ancestors ³  did when they forgot who I am by worshiping the god Baal. ⁴ 

“For I, the Lord, say: ¹  ‘I will surely bring on these people all the good fortune that I am hereby promising them. I will be just as sure to do that as I have been in bringing all this great disaster on them. ²