<p class="bodytext">&#8220;I (says the <sc>Lordsc>) will strengthen the kingdom<n id="1" /> of Judah and deliver the people of Joseph<n id="2" /> and will bring them back<n id="3" /> because of my compassion for them. They will be as though I had never rejected them, for I am the <sc>Lordsc> their God and therefore I will hear them.

Indeed, I will no longer have compassion on the people of the land,&#8221; says the <sc>Lordsc>, &#8220;but instead I will turn every last person over to his neighbor and his king. They will devastate the land, and I will not deliver it from them.&#8221;p>

Then, if anyone prophesies in spite of this, his father and mother to whom he was born will say to him, &#8216;You cannot live, for you lie in the name of the <sc>Lordsc>.&#8217; Then his father and mother to whom he was born will run him through with a sword when he prophesies.<n id="1" />p>

For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem<n id="1" /> to wage war; the city will be taken, its houses plundered, and the women raped. Then half of the city will go into exile, but the remainder of the people will not be taken away.<n id="2" />p>

I asked, &#8220;What are these going to do?&#8221; He answered, &#8220;These horns are the ones that have scattered Judah so that there is no one to be seen.<n id="1" /> But the blacksmiths have come to terrify Judah&#8217;s enemies<n id="2" /> and cut off the horns of the nations that have thrust themselves against the land of Judah in order to scatter its people.&#8221;<n id="3" />p>