I will send men against it to destroy it ¹  with their axes and hatchets. They will hack up its fine cedar panels and columns and throw them into the fire.

“People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me. ¹  For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,” ²  says the Lord. “For ³  I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.”

Recently, however, you yourselves ¹  showed a change of heart and did what is pleasing to me. You granted your fellow countrymen their freedom and you made a covenant to that effect in my presence in the house that I have claimed for my own. ² 

So I, the Lord, affirm ¹  that I am opposed to those prophets who steal messages from one another that they claim are from me. ² 

“Get out of Babylon, my people! Flee to save your lives from the fierce anger of the Lord! ¹ 

I will bring terror on you from every side,” says the Lord God who rules over all. ¹  “You will be scattered in every direction. ²  No one will gather the fugitives back together.

So now, tell the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem ¹  this: The Lord says, ‘I am preparing to bring disaster on you! I am making plans to punish you. ²  So, every one of you, stop the evil things you have been doing. ³  Correct the way you have been living and do what is right.’ ⁴ 

Their tongues are like deadly arrows. ¹  They are always telling lies. ²  Friendly words for their neighbors come from their mouths. But their minds are thinking up ways to trap them. ³ 

Everyone was supposed to free their male and female Hebrew slaves. No one was supposed to keep a fellow Judean enslaved. ¹ 

So I, the Lord, say: “You have not really obeyed me and granted freedom to your neighbor and fellow countryman. ¹  Therefore, I will grant you freedom, the freedom ²  to die in war, or by starvation or disease. I, the Lord, affirm it! ³  I will make all the kingdoms of the earth horrified at what happens to you. ⁴ 

All the people and their leaders had agreed to this. They had agreed to free their male and female slaves and not keep them enslaved any longer. They originally complied with the covenant and freed them. ¹ 

Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about all the disaster I intend to bring on them, they will all stop doing the evil things they have been doing. ¹  If they do, I will forgive their sins and the wicked things they have done.” ² 

Perhaps then they will ask the Lord for mercy and will all stop doing the evil things they have been doing. ¹  For the Lord has threatened to bring great anger and wrath against these people.” ² 

I will make many stumble. ¹  They will fall over one another in their hurry to flee. ²  They will say, ‘Get up! Let’s go back to our own people. Let’s go back to our homelands because the enemy is coming to destroy us.’ ³ 

Kill all the farmers who sow the seed in the land of Babylon. Kill all those who wield the sickle at harvest time. ¹  Let all the foreigners return to their own people. Let them hurry back to their own lands to escape destruction by that enemy army. ² 

Get out of Babylonia quickly, you foreign people. ¹  Flee to save your lives. Do not let yourselves be killed because of her sins. For it is time for the Lord to wreak his revenge. He will pay Babylonia ²  back for what she has done. ³ 

The bronze top of one pillar was about seven and one-half feet ¹  high and had bronze latticework and pomegranate-shaped ornaments all around it. The second pillar with its pomegranate-shaped ornaments was like it.

You must change ¹  the way you have been living and do what is right. You must treat one another fairly. ² 

For I will soon summon all the peoples of the kingdoms of the north,” says the Lord. “They will come and their kings will set up their thrones ¹  near the entrances of the gates of Jerusalem. ²  They will attack all the walls surrounding it, and all the towns in Judah. ³ 

One friend deceives another and no one tells the truth. These people have trained themselves ¹  to tell lies. They do wrong and are unable to repent.