<p class="poetry">This man, Jeconiah, will be like a broken pot someone threw away.p> <p class="poetry">He will be like a clay vessel<n id="1" /> that no one wants.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Why will he and his children be forced into exile?p> <p class="poetry">Why will they be thrown out into a country they know nothing about?<n id="3" />p>

All nations must serve him and his son and grandson<n id="1" /> until the time comes for his own nation to fall.<n id="2" /> Then many nations and great kings will in turn subjugate Babylon.<n id="3" />

<p class="poetry">One of their own people will be their leader.p> <p class="poetry">Their ruler will come from their own number.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">I will invite him to approach me, and he will do so.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">For no one would dare approach me on his own.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">I, the <sc>Lordsc>, affirm it!<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">They will come back shedding tears of contrition.p> <p class="poetry">I will bring them back praying prayers of repentance.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">I will lead them besides streams of water,p> <p class="poetry">along smooth paths where they will never stumble.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">I will do this because I am Israel&#8217;s father;p> <p class="poetry">Ephraim<n id="3" /> is my firstborn son.&#8217;&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;I, the <sc>Lordsc>, say:<n id="1" /> &#8216;You and your people are saying<n id="2" /> about this place, &#8220;It lies in ruins. There are no people or animals in it.&#8221; That is true. The towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem<n id="3" /> will soon be desolate, uninhabited either by people or by animals. But happy sounds will again be heard in these places.

But he only got as far as the Benjamin Gate.<n id="1" /> There an officer in charge of the guards named Irijah,<n id="2" /> who was the son of Shelemiah and the grandson of Hananiah, stopped him. He seized Jeremiah and said,<n id="3" /> &#8220;You are deserting to the Babylonians!&#8221;<n id="4" />

Now the cistern where Ishmael threw all the dead bodies of those he had killed was a large one<n id="1" /> that King Asa had constructed as part of his defenses against King Baasha of Israel.<n id="2" /> Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with dead bodies.<n id="3" />

<p class="poetry">&#8220;From its earliest days Moab has lived undisturbed.p> <p class="poetry">It has never been taken into exile.p> <p class="poetry">Its people are like wine allowed to settle undisturbed on its dregs,p> <p class="poetry">never poured out from one jar to another.p> <p class="poetry">They are like wine which tastes like it always did,p> <p class="poetry">whose aroma has remained unchanged.<n id="1" />p>

<p class="bodytext">For the <sc>Lordsc> says, &#8220;If even those who did not deserve to drink from the cup of my wrath must drink from it, do you think you will go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, but must certainly drink from the cup of my wrath.<n id="1" />

<p class="poetry">For a nation from the north<n id="1" /> will attack Babylon.p> <p class="poetry">It will lay her land waste.p> <p class="poetry">People and animals will flee out of it.p> <p class="poetry">No one will inhabit it.&#8217;p>

King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army and set up camp outside it.<n id="1" /> They built siege ramps all around it. He arrived on the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year that Zedekiah ruled over Judah.<n id="2" />

Now it happened just as the <sc>Lordsc> had said! My cousin Hanamel<n id="1" /> came to me in the courtyard of the guardhouse. He said to me, &#8216;Buy my field which is at Anathoth in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. Buy it for yourself since you are entitled as my closest relative to take possession of it for yourself.&#8217; When this happened, I recognized that the <sc>Lordsc> had indeed spoken to me.

So these officials said to the king, &#8220;This man must be put to death. For he is demoralizing<n id="1" /> the soldiers who are left in the city as well as all the other people there by these things he is saying.<n id="2" /> This<n id="3" /> man is not seeking to help these people but is trying to harm them.&#8221;<n id="4" />