<p class="poetry">The snorting of the enemy&#8217;s horsesp> <p class="poetry">is already being heard in the city of Dan.p> <p class="poetry">The sound of the neighing of their stallions<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">causes the whole land to tremble with fear.p> <p class="poetry">They are coming to destroy the land and everything in it!p> <p class="poetry">They are coming to destroy<n id="2" /> the cities and everyone who lives in them!&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> is the only true God.p> <p class="poetry">He is the living God and the everlasting King.p> <p class="poetry">When he shows his anger the earth shakes.p> <p class="poetry">None of the nations can stand up to his fury.p>

<p class="poetry">When his voice thunders,<n id="1" /> the heavenly ocean roars.p> <p class="poetry">He makes the clouds rise from the far-off horizons.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">He makes the lightning flash out in the midst of the rain.p> <p class="poetry">He unleashes the wind from the places where he stores it.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">For the <sc>Lordsc> says, &#8220;I will now throw outp> <p class="poetry">those who live in this land.p> <p class="poetry">I will bring so much trouble on themp> <p class="poetry">that they will actually feel it.&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">They will lay it waste.p> <p class="poetry">It will lie parched<n id="1" /> and empty before me.p> <p class="poetry">The whole land will be laid waste.p> <p class="poetry">But no one living in it will pay any heed.<n id="2" />p>

I will make all the people in all the kingdoms of the world horrified at what has happened to them because of what Hezekiah&#8217;s son Manasseh, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">I said,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Oh, mother, how I regret<n id="2" /> that you ever gave birth to me!p> <p class="poetry">I am always starting arguments and quarrels with the people of this land.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">I have not lent money to anyone and I have not borrowed from anyone.p> <p class="poetry">Yet all of these people are treating me with contempt.&#8221;<n id="4" />p>

For he will die in the country where they took him as a captive. He will never see this land again.&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

I will force you and your mother who gave you birth into exile. You will be exiled to<n id="1" /> a country where neither of you were born, and you will both die there.

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Do you really think anyone can hide himselfp> <p class="poetry">where I cannot see him?&#8221; the <sc>Lordsc> asks.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Do you not know that I am everywhere?&#8221;<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">the <sc>Lordsc> asks.<n id="3" />p>

I will look after their welfare<n id="1" /> and will restore them to this land. There I will build them up and will not tear them down. I will plant them firmly in the land<n id="2" /> and will not uproot them.<n id="3" />

I will bring such disaster on them that all the kingdoms of the earth will be horrified. I will make them an object of reproach, a proverbial example of disaster. I will make them an object of ridicule, an example to be used in curses.<n id="1" /> That is how they will be remembered wherever I banish them.<n id="2" />

This whole area<n id="1" /> will become a desolate wasteland. These nations will be subject to the king of Babylon for seventy years.&#8217;<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">The sounds of battle<n id="1" /> will resound to the ends of the earth.p> <p class="poetry">For the <sc>Lordsc> will bring charges against the nations.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">He will pass judgment on all humankindp> <p class="poetry">and will hand the wicked over to be killed in war.&#8217;<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> so affirms it!<n id="4" />p>

If you do not obey me,<n id="1" /> then I will do to this temple what I did to Shiloh.<n id="2" /> And I will make this city an example to be used in curses by people from all the nations on the earth.&#8217;&#8221;p>

You kept the promise that you swore on oath to their ancestors.<n id="1" /> You gave them a land flowing with milk and honey.<n id="2" />

I will punish the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials,<n id="1" /> the priests, and all the other people of the land who passed between the pieces of the calf.<n id="2" />

I will hand them over to their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals.<n id="1" />

Neither he nor the officials who served him nor the people of Judah paid any attention to what the <sc>Lordsc> said through the prophet Jeremiah.<n id="1" />p>

Where now are the prophets who prophesied to you that<n id="1" /> the king of Babylon would not attack you or this land?