<p class="poetry">Shout the battle cry from all around the city.p> <p class="poetry">She will throw up her hands in surrender.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Her towers<n id="2" /> will fall.p> <p class="poetry">Her walls will be torn down.p> <p class="poetry">Because I, the <sc>Lordsc>, am wreaking revenge,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">take out your vengeance on her!p> <p class="poetry">Do to her as she has done!p>

<p class="poetry">So I, the <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel who rules over all, say:<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;I will punish the king of Babylon and his landp> <p class="poetry">just as I punished the king of Assyria.p>

<p class="bodytext">So I did just as I was commanded. I carried out my belongings packed for exile during the day, and at evening I dug myself a hole through the wall with my hands. I went out in the darkness, carrying my baggage<n id="1" /> on my shoulder while they watched.p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;Therefore, this is what the sovereign <sc>Lordsc> says: Like the wood of the vine is among the trees of the forest which I have provided as fuel for the fire &#8211; so I will provide the residents of Jerusalem<n id="1" /> as fuel.<n id="2" />

When the prince provides a freewill offering, a burnt offering, or peace offerings as a voluntary offering to the <sc>Lordsc>, the gate facing east will be opened for him, and he will provide his burnt offering and his peace offerings just as he did on the Sabbath. Then he will go out, and the gate will be closed after he goes out.<n id="1" />p>

He has carried out his threats<n id="1" /> against us and our rulers<n id="2" /> who were over<n id="3" /> us by bringing great calamity on us &#8211; what has happened to Jerusalem has never been equaled under all heaven!

Just as it is written in the law of Moses, so all this calamity has come on us. Still we have not tried to pacify<n id="1" /> the <sc>LORDsc> our God by turning back from our sin and by seeking wisdom<n id="2" /> from your reliable moral standards.<n id="3" />

<p class="poetry">It will so happen thatp> <p class="poetry">everyone who calls on the name of the <sc>Lordsc> will be delivered.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem<n id="2" /> there will be those who survive,<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">just as the <sc>Lordsc> has promised;p> <p class="poetry">the remnant<n id="4" /> will be those whom the <sc>Lordsc> will call.<n id="5" />p>

<p class="poetry">This is what the <sc>Lordsc> says:p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Just as a shepherd salvages from the lion&#8217;s mouth a couple of leg bones or a piece of an ear,p> <p class="poetry">so the Israelites who live in Samaria will be salvaged.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">They will be left with just a corner of a bed,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">and a part<n id="3" /> of a couch.&#8221;p>

So they cried out to the <sc>Lordsc>, &#8220;Oh, please, <sc>Lordsc>, don&#8217;t let us die on account of this man! Don&#8217;t hold us guilty of shedding innocent blood.<n id="1" /> After all, you, <sc>Lordsc>, have done just as you pleased.&#8221;<n id="2" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak,<n id="1" /> along with the whole remnant of the people,<n id="2" /> obeyed<n id="3" /> the <sc>Lordsc> their God. They responded favorably to the message of the prophet Haggai, who spoke just as the <sc>Lordsc> their God had instructed him,<n id="4" /> and the people began to respect the <sc>Lordsc>.<n id="5" />

But have my words and statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, not outlived your fathers?<n id="1" /> Then they paid attention<n id="2" /> and confessed, &#8216;The <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all has indeed done what he said he would do to us, because of our sinful ways.&#8217;&#8221;p>

by asking both the priests of the temple<n id="1" /> of the <sc>Lord who rules over allsc> and the prophets, &#8220;Should we weep in the fifth month,<n id="2" /> fasting as we have done over the years?&#8221;

<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.

Then you will escape<n id="1" /> through my mountain valley, for the mountains will extend to Azal.<n id="2" /> Indeed, you will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah<n id="3" /> of Judah. Then the <sc>Lordsc> my God will come with all his holy ones with him.

&#8220;They will belong to me,&#8221; says the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all, &#8220;in the day when I prepare my own special property.<n id="1" /> I will spare them as a man spares his son who serves him.

And the <sc>Lordsc> smelled the soothing aroma<n id="1" /> and said<n id="2" /> to himself,<n id="3" /> &#8220;I will never again curse<n id="4" /> the ground because of humankind, even though<n id="5" /> the inclination of their minds<n id="6" /> is evil from childhood on.<n id="7" /> I will never again destroy everything that lives, as I have just done.p>

All the people,<n id="1" /> rulers,<n id="2" /> leaders, and judges were standing on either side of the ark, in front of the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the <sc>Lordsc>. Both resident foreigners and native Israelites were there.<n id="3" /> Half the people stood in front of Mount Gerizim and the other half in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s servant had previously instructed to them to do for the formal blessing ceremony.<n id="4" />

So now, look, the <sc>Lordsc> has preserved my life, just as he promised, these past forty-five years since the <sc>Lordsc> spoke these words to Moses, during which Israel traveled through the wilderness. Now look, I am today eighty-five years old.

But in the same way every faithful promise the <sc>Lordsc> your God made to you has been realized,<n id="1" /> it is just as certain, if you disobey, that the <sc>Lordsc> will bring on you every judgment<n id="2" /> until he destroys you from this good land which the <sc>Lordsc> your God gave you.