<t /><p class="poetry">&#8220;Tell these people this, Jeremiah:<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;My eyes overflow with tearsp> <p class="poetry">day and night without ceasing.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">For my people, my dear children,<n id="3" /> have suffered a crushing blow.p> <p class="poetry">They have suffered a serious wound.<n id="4" />p>

Perhaps then they will ask the <sc>Lordsc> for mercy and will all stop doing the evil things they have been doing.<n id="1" /> For the <sc>Lordsc> has threatened to bring great anger and wrath against these people.&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

<p class="bodytext">Then all the men who were aware that their wives were sacrificing to other gods, as well as all their wives, answered Jeremiah. There was a great crowd of them representing all the people who lived in northern and southern Egypt.<n id="1" /> They answered,

I will see to it that all the Judean remnant that was determined to go<n id="1" /> and live in the land of Egypt will be destroyed. Here in the land of Egypt they will fall in battle<n id="2" /> or perish from starvation. People of every class<n id="3" /> will die in war or from starvation. They will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example of those who have been cursed and that people use in pronouncing a curse.<n id="4" />