<p class="poetry">Why should the nations say, &#8220;Where is their God?&#8221;p> <p class="poetry">Before our very eyes may the shed blood of your servantsp> <p class="poetry">be avenged among the nations!<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">Rise up, O God, and execute judgment on the earth!p> <p class="poetry">For you own<n id="1" /> all the nations.p>

<p class="poetry">Deliver us, O <sc>Lordsc>, our God!p> <p class="poetry">Gather us from among the nations!p> <p class="poetry">Then we will give thanks<n id="1" /> to your holy name,p> <p class="poetry">and boast about your praiseworthy deeds.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">This is the plan I have devised for the whole earth;p> <p class="poetry">my hand is ready to strike all the nations.&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> spoke to Jeremiah about the nations.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;This is what the sovereign <sc>Lordsc> says: This is Jerusalem; I placed her in the center of the nations with countries all around her.

I acted for the sake of my reputation, so that I would not be profaned before the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;&#8216;I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries; then I will bring you to your land.

Then, when my sanctuary is among them forever, the nations will know that I, the <sc>Lord,sc> sanctify Israel.&#8217;&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">Lend your aid<n id="1" /> and come,p> <p class="poetry">all you surrounding nations,p> <p class="poetry">and gather yourselves<n id="2" /> to that place.&#8221;p> <p class="poetry">Bring down, O <sc>Lordsc>, your warriors!<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">I will angrily seek vengeancep> <p class="poetry">on the nations that do not obey me.&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

So on that day I will set out to destroy all the nations<n id="1" /> that come against Jerusalem.&#8221;p>

&#8220;All nations will call you happy, for you indeed will live in<n id="1" /> a delightful land,&#8221; says the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all.p>

See, I have parceled out to your tribes these remaining nations,<n id="1" /> from the Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea<n id="2" /> in the west, including all the nations I defeated.<n id="3" />

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;Therefore this is what the sovereign <sc>Lordsc> says: Because you are more arrogant<n id="1" /> than the nations around you,<n id="2" /> you have not followed my statutes and have not carried out my regulations. You have not even<n id="3" /> carried out the regulations of the nations around you!p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">&#8220;&#8216;Do not defile yourselves with any of these things, for the nations which I am about to drive out before you<n id="1" /> have been defiled with all these things.

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;&#8216;As for your male and female slaves<n id="1" /> who may belong to you &#8211; you may buy male and female slaves from the nations all around you.<n id="2" />

I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors<n id="1" /> whom I brought out from the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations to be their God. I am the <sc>Lordsc>.&#8217;&#8221;p>

If you kill<n id="1" /> this entire people at once,<n id="2" /> then the nations that have heard of your fame will say,

He,<n id="1" /> the God who leads you, will expel the nations little by little. You will not be allowed to destroy them all at once lest the wild animals overrun you.